Page 70 - kpiebook63002
P. 70
70 ²££°¸¡§´²²£
ª²±£°À¥i² £±ÉµÈ
¤±³µÃ£Ã£ j³¨£i³¿¸Ç®³¤²³
Over the last 10 years, Bhutan has seen over five years each successive
changes in the government. DPT in 2008 was 45 seats, in 2013 it was PDP
35 seats, but there was a by-election when the member of opposition resign.
The ruling party won, became 36 seats and now 30 seats for DNT. What we
see is that there is a decreasing shares of seats in the ruling party, although
the ruling party has changed. Bhutan’s election process is a two level process,
where we have first the primary round in which all political parties that are
registered with the Election Commission Counter. So, this is a really a multiparty
election. Votes are counted at the national level, but then only the two parties
which win the maximum number of votes go on to contest the next election
called the general round. In this round, the two parties fill or propose 47
candidates each. So, this is really a two party election now. The others have
been eliminated. This leads to a national assembly where we can never have a
coalition and where rather the stability and continue to have government is
assured for a small country in a hot geo-strategic location. This is very
important consideration. So, the primary election for 2018 were held actually on
15th September and four parties contested. BKP was eliminated in the first
round. These two parties made it through. And PDP which are the government
between 2016 and 18 came third and lost in the primary round. So, what I’m
trying to say just this. That prompt 2008, we had only two political parties and
when the primary round was not held, the number of political parties have
increased over the years. For in 2013, there was five, but this party BKP did
not have enough candidates. In Bhutan, a candidate must have a minimum of a
university degree. So, two candidates from a remote community could not find
candidate, so it was disqualified. Then in 2018, the number of parties is actually
increased, but then there are another two parties which did not meet certain
criteria and they’re too disqualified. The fact remains that participation in the
political process is increasing. That’s my point.
The voter turn out is, again, very interesting. I’m looking at two parliament
houses national council assembly. In that council from 2008 to 2018, you can
²£ ´£²¢¡¸¡¡Á¥°£°ª²£l²h²£°À¨
see gradual but steady increases. In the National Assembly, as I said in 2008
because there were only two parties. We did not have the primary round, but it
increased between 13 and 18. In the general round, it differed in 2008; 66 in
2013 that was really bad for us. This time 71 persons. What you see is people
tend to vote more for National Assembly than council. People tend to vote
more for general elections than the primary round.
The parliament of Bhutan is not just of the National Assembly, where
there are 47 members. It also consist of National Council, where they serve for
10 years. It has 25 independent members. These members of the National
Council can never belong to a political party, whereas the members of the
National Assembly can never be independent, must belong to political parties.
