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…

Financing political parties

July 2, 2009Posted inPolitical parties19 Comments
The Royal Audit Authority, in its annual report to the Parliament, pointed out what we all know: that both our political parties are in serious financial problems. As of 30th June 2008, PDP owed Nu 20,326,924 to the Bank of Bhutan and Nu 3,588,232 to other various other suppliers. DPT owed Nu 14,253,975 to the Bank and Nu 7,708,010 to other suppliers. Yesterday, the National Assembly spent a good hour discussing the Royal Audit Authority’s observations on the financial status of our two political parties. Actually, we did not really discuss the audit observations per se. Instead, we talked…