Clear to run(?)

September 13, 2012Posted inDemocracy, Political parties82 Comments
About 6 weeks ago, at a press conference, the prime minister claimed that the Election Commission of Bhutan should disqualify the opposition party from taking part in the next round of elections for failing to clear its debts by the 30 June deadline. Remarkably, the prime minister also suggested that the two members in opposition should not be permitted to run in the next elections … not as members of their current party, not by starting a new party, not by joining another party. As it turned out, the election commission, having reviewed the status of the two existing…

On ECB’s side

March 20, 2012Posted inDemocracy14 Comments
Elections are the single most important part of a democracy. They allow people to participate in the democratic process by directly choosing who they want as their representatives in the parliament. And they provide political legitimacy to elected representatives and to democratic governments. That's why it's important to allow as many people as possible to take part in elections. So, naturally, I'm happy to hear that the Election Commission has decided to allow Bhutanese citizens living in America to use postal ballots in the next elections. They were not allowed to do so in the past, and, as such,…

Politics of LG elections

July 22, 2011Posted inLocal Government7 Comments
The local government elections are over. And the new gups – the heads of local governments – have started taking their charge throughout the country. But a dozen gewogs still don’t have gups. Goenshari in Punakha yielded a two-way tie. The election results in Bjabcho in Chukha was nullified as the winning candidate turned out to be overaged. And elections for Gongdue in Mongar could not be conducted as the lone candidate was disqualified for violating electoral laws. So elections for Goenshari’s two candidates will be repeated. And elections will be conducted in Bjabcho and Gondue. The remaining 9…

Well done ECB

June 29, 2011Posted inDemocracy1 Comment
The Election Commission of Bhutan have now completed seven rounds of elections. Of the seven, last Monday’s local government elections was by far the largest and most complex. It was also the most successful. ECB officials, including those in the dzongkhags, worked round the clock, for months on end, to organize the elections. They were assisted by about 150 senior civil servants who were on deputation since early April this year to work as observers and returning officers. And more than 5,500 election officials, most of them teachers, were trained and dispatched to man the 1,103 polling stations located…

Right to choose

April 21, 2011Posted inDemocracy
The Chief Election Commissioner has released a pamphlet "... to share a few concerns of the Election Commission and clarify certain issues" The Election Commission requests all of us to forward and redistribute their pamphlet to other Bhutanese.      

Quiet!

March 17, 2011Posted inLegislature30 Comments
Several readers have repeatedly asked me why the opposition party had not taken the ECB to court for disregarding the Constitution during the recent thromde elections. “Guardian”, for example, has argued that since the opposition had taken the government to court for violating the Constitution, it should, by the same measure, also take the ECB to court for allowing candidates to stand for election even though they had not been registered in their respective constituencies for the minimum one-year period. And Since I hadn’t responded to these concerns, “Guardian” challenged, on several posts, that “by going against the government…

2 Letters

January 3, 2011Posted inLegislature, Media9 Comments
I sent two letters today. The first letter was to the Chief Election Commissioner informing him that the ECB’s recent decision to revise the criteria for candidates to local governments may violate provisions of the Constitution, Election Act and the Local Government Act. The second letter was to the Director of BICMA complaining that The Journalist had quoted me in their article when they hadn’t even interviewed me. And that, in that article, they had inaccurately claimed that I had supported the ECB’s decision.

A voting matter

October 22, 2010Posted inDemocracy
India’s electronic voting machines have come under some scrutiny by the media, civil society, politicians and voters. Since we use the same voting machines, our chief election commissioner, Dasho Kunzang Wangdi, clarified that the recent questions surrounding the integrity of the EVMs are: … nothing to worry about. “I’m not concerned because I’ve seen many EVMs and the Indian EVMs are the best,” he said, adding that he had inspected various EVMs at an international conference in Philippines, where international vendors showcased technology during an exhibition at the election technology conference. “We have no reason to be concerned.” The…

ECB’s right

September 28, 2010Posted inLocal Government
The Election Commission of Bhutan is correct in cautioning the government that the local government elections would be incomplete and unconstitutional if those elections were conducted without first finalizing the yenlag thromdes (satellite towns). Yenlag thromdes have still not been identified for the Dzongkhags. So holding the local government elections now would, as ECB maintains, result in incomplete Dzongkhag Tshogdus, and risk violating Article 21 Section 9 of the Constitution according to which: The Dzongkhag Tshogdu shall comprise: (a)            The Gup and Mangmi as the two elected representatives from each Gewog; (b)            One elected representative from that Dzongkhag Thromde;…

Testing ourselves

August 25, 2010Posted inLocal Government
The ECB’s “functional literacy and skills test” for candidates to local government elections is comprehensive. Aspiring candidates will have to take a written test to determine their computational, analytical, managerial and correspondence skills. And they will have to undergo an oral test to demonstrate their reading, writing and speaking skills. ECB’s diligence will, no doubt, ensure that only the most competent can stand for the local government elections. And, that must be good. But I’ve been wondering: how many of our current MPs would have passed the functional literacy and skills test? I don’t know about my colleagues in…

Better party

September 15, 2009Posted inDemocracy, Political parties
That a group of people in Thimphu are forming a political party comes as very good news. Our two existing parties – one ruling, the other in opposition – cannot offer sufficient choice for democracy to take hold in our country. So we should be excited about the prospects of a third party. And we should encourage them. But we may need even more people to step forward and form political parties. After all, both the existing parties – DPT and the PDP – have huge loans, and may not be around to participate in the 2013 elections. The…

Our democracy

August 26, 2009Posted inDemocracy, Monarchy
Yesterday, HRH Ashi Sonam Dechan Wangchuck inaugurated a workshop entitled “Democracy in our Place”. During this important workshop, participates will discuss various concepts about democracy and good governance. In her royal address, HRH observed that many of us readily declare that “democracy must succeed in Bhutan.” But for democracy to succeed, HRH commanded that “…it must be relevant to the lives of the citizens, and most importantly it must be beneficial to them.” A gentle reminder for all of us. The workshop, which is being conducted in Hotel Zhiwaling, is organised by the Election Commission of Bhutan. You'll find…

Compulsory contributions?

May 11, 2009Posted inPolitical parties
I’d promised one anonymous reader that I’d give my views on an unrelated comment on “Sustaining happiness”. This was what our anonymous reader had asked: I have been reading about the contribution of the MPs salary towards sustaining thier offices and wondered how that worked. How is accounted for in the election commission. To me, its seems like an advantage over other parties and perhaps something only DPT is capable of right now. given, that PDP has only two members even if they wanted to contribute , it wouldn't compare. The comment relates to talk about the DPT requiring…