Little hope for dying parties
5 March 2010
The Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) has given Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) until 2012 to become financially sound. And the party offices in all 20 dzongkhags should be up and running.
ECB has issued a notice cautioning that any party having credits in 2012 cannot contest in the 2013 elections.
But both the parties claim to be bankrupt with membership strength and voluntary contributions dwindling.
The proposal for state funding of Nu 15 to 20 million, although approved by the government, was opposed by ECB and the National Council on grounds of unconstitutionality.
What next for the parties?
The financial position of parties
DPT
DPT has an office each in all 20 dzongkhags but only a few of them are functional owing to lack of funds.
From June 2008 to July 2009, DPT MPs contributed 10 percent of their salary to run party offices. After that, respective MPs were given the responsibility to run their own dzongkhag offices. Their contribution was to be directly given to dzongkhag offices. But only a few have complied with it. However, by the end of this March, the MPs who have not contributed will have to make the contribution.
The dzongkhag coordinators have not been paid since July 2008. The 10 workers at the head office have not been paid for the last three months. The office has been run on contributions from the members but even this has exhausted.
The head office rent for the month of February is still pending.
According to the party secretary, the head office staff might continue to work without salary only for a few more months.
DPT has 20 dzongkhag coordinators and 205 gewog coordinators some of whom have resigned to participate in the local government elections. Others haven’t renewed their membership.
During the elections, the party had more than 12,000 members. In July, 2009, the number dropped to 3,805.
During the party’s sixth executive committee meeting last month, many coordinators showed inclination to resign for they felt sidelined from party activities and did not receive enough trust and confidence from the people.
During the meeting, the party requested its MPs, ministers and Thimphu-based supporters to sponsor the meals and transportation cost for the coordinators.
The party workers gave until May to improve the party’f financial situation. If this does not happen, they will quit the party.
Meanwhile, the party has already drawn an organizational manual and revised its charter which will be submitted to the government sometime in April.
The party has an overdraft of Nu 17.54 million and owes Nu 3.071 million to its creditors. If the government does not come to rescue, the party might collapse and the whole essence of democracy will be gone, said the party secretary, Thinley Gyamtsho.
He said, “There are so many restrictions from ECB including on the issue of state funding. The constitution doesn’t have anything clear on state funding.”
PDP
The party’s head office and all 20 dzongkhag offices are run by party volunteers on contributions. The party president and Opposition Leader (OL) said there was very little work to be done in the party offices.
The party has no gewog coordinators but the office keeps in touch with past party workers in the gewogs.
Party coordinators and workers meet during the annual general meeting and keep in touch with one another through phone. Today, PDP has about 400 registered members.
The party has requested its coordinators to work on a voluntary basis since the party cannot afford to pay them. The house rent and other bills for the head office are settled with contributions.
The party has an outstanding due of about Nu 25 million.
The OL said that the party has no money, and its debts cannot be cleared in the next few years.
However, state funding, he said, was unconstitutional and illegal.
“The constitution states that a party will have to survive on voluntary contributions from the registered members. And the government is not a registered member,” he said, adding that democracy and parties could be failing but one cannot break the constitution. “If PDP fails, that’s it,” he said.
He asked if a party should exist at all if it does not have any support from the people. “A political party survives when people get together with a common vision for the country,” he said.
The OL said ECB must explore ways to clear the past loans, but loans taken after the elections should be settled by the parties themselves.
“If need be, we (the parties and the ECB) should collectively submit to His Majesty for his council,” he said, adding that they should stick by the constitution if it does not come through.
By Sonam Pelden
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Not a good sign for the democracy of the country….not only is the life of present parties at risk but it will also discourage future promosing parties to be formed…however, i guess it is responsibilities of each party to work out something than submit it to HM…we cant afford to take everyone problem to HM…
How can a worker work without necessary equipments? This is the situation in Bhutan. We want democracy to succeed, where as on the other hand criticisms by the people and volumes of rules to be followed by parties is proving bottle neck for democracy.
Can we now focus to support the parties to survive no matter whether it is PDP or DPT or any third party instead of letting them die. It seems DPT and PDP cannot contest in next election as per the new rule of ECB. If they cannot contest I hope ECB will have some other options in store.