Bhutan heading to third NA election

Bhutan is heading to elections for the third national assembly since the country opened for a strictly guided political freedom in 2008. Dispatch of ballots for those listed on postal ballots has begun. Postal ballots, approved for 3,568 voters overseas, include many overseas Bhutanese especially in New York and Australia where Bhutanese directly migrating from Bhutan concentrate.

Of the 438,663 registered voters for the National Assembly elections, 304,868 are expected to vote on the EVMs across the 865 polling stations and 133,795 will vote through postal ballot.

The election costing Nu 500 million for national exchequer will have 3,706 officials on election duty. Of the 865 polling stations, 191 polling stations have less than 250 registered voters.

The four political parties – PDP. DPT, BKP and DNT – will consume over Nu 7M in first round while the finalists two parties will consume another Nu 14 million. There will be only one observer in each district possibly concentrated in headquarter. International observers are not accepted – the tradition followed from India.

The parties are fighting on issues such as corruption and increasing youth unemployment. Access to health services in rural areas and drinking water supply are other agendas that people want their representatives to address.

Two established PDP and DPT will take test of their actions against barely known BKP and DNT. Because only two parties can represent in the national assembly, the older are likely to get to the final round again.