NC election date postponed

19 January 2008

Bhutan: The date for the NationalCouncil elections has beenpostponed by five daysfrom 26 December to 31December to give aspiringcandidates more time tocampaign, according to theElection Commission ofBhutan (ECB).

This will increase thecampaign period for thecandidates from 24 days to31.The Chief ElectionCommissioner, DashoKunzang Wangdi, saidthat the move followedcomments from the candidatesin the media that thecampaigning period wastoo short.

andnbsp;The ECB has,therefore, responded to theconcern.The revision issuedon 2 November includes achange in the dates of fewelection procedures. Somedates remain unchanged.Gewog zomdus (meetings)started on 20 Octoberand the last date is still 26November.

The last date offiling nominations of candidatesfrom the gewogs alsoremains unchanged which is27 November.The Returning Officerswill then scrutinise thenominations received andrecommend the release ofthe campaign fund.

Arrangementswill be made to releasethe campaign funds on theday of acceptance of thecandidates by the ReturningOfficers.Candidates can thenbegin their campaign from28 November and not 30November as announcedearlier.

The last date to releasethe campaign funds to thecandidates has also been preponed to 28 Novemberfrom 4 December. The lastdate of withdrawal of candidatureremains unchanged at30 November.As per the election rules,candidates will have tostop campaigning 48 hoursprior to the poll, whichmeans they will have tostop campaigning by 29December.

The poll will take placeon Monday, 31 December.The ECB had earlierannounced that electionswould not take place duringthe weekend, following theexperiences of the mockelections which concludedthat the voter turnout couldhave been more if polls hadnot been conducted duringweekends or holidays.

The votes will becounted on the same dayand the results will bedeclared and submitted tothe Druk Gyalpo the nextday.Dasho Kunzang Wangdisaid that the royal decreeissued by His Majesty on30 June stated that the National Council elections hadto be held in December.

Whilethere was a need for the dates tobe postponed, the ECB could notgo beyond December.“We went to the last datepossible in December,” he said.As for dzongkhags with oneor no candidates, the poll datehas been postponed to 29 January2008.

The last date for the nominationof candidates is 1 January2008.If no second candidatecomes forward to contest, DashoKunzang Wangdi said, appropriatedecisions will be taken then. “Weare hoping that we dont have topostpone the dates for a secondtime,” he said.

The lone candidates from any dzongkhags cannot campaignwhile others are campaigning buthe said that they can go on familiarisationtours.

Today, the three dzongkhagsof Bumthang, Lhuentse and Gasahave only one candidate each.There are, however, individualsfrom Khamey Gewog of Gasashowing interest, said DashoKunzang.In any case, he said that thingswill be clear on 27 November,which is the last date for filing thenomination of candidates. “As ofnow, we dont know the numberof candidates from each dzongkhag,”he said.

By Sonam Pelden

andnbsp;Updated on 09 November 2007 © Bhutan Observer Pvt. Ltd 2007

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