After all the hurly-burly and battle lost and won, there has been a long silence. But not calm. Eleven days after the October 18 election, the nation is awaiting a government.

But there have been some developments all along. Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa, the party that won the third National Assembly election is expected to float the names of ministerial candidates before October 30. But the appointment of the ministers will come only after His Majesty The King grants the Dakyen to the prime minister-elect.

But the people are already throwing up names as to which elected member of the Parliament is capable of manning which ministry. Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, the party that will now stand as the opposition in the Parliament too has decided to throw in their nominees to the post of Speaker and Deputy Speaker. The National Assembly’s secretary general has reportedly conveyed that the party should file in the nominations before the evening of October 30. The party has Drametse-Ngatshang’s Ugyen Wangdi as the Speaker candidate and Chhumig-Ura’s Karma Wangchuk as the candidate for Deputy Speaker.

Going by the Constitution, the National Assembly shall elect Speaker and Deputy Speaker from among the elected members at the first sitting after the general election. Developments that will unfurl in the coming days will be interesting because we now have a good mix of members in the Parliament, albeit many are raw and young.

The bigger worry for the nation though, is, the time. The challenges that await us are by any measure not a trifling. To really understand the magnitude of tests confronting us, bringing ourselves to the real perspective is critically important. Tasks that require our immediate actions are 12th Plan and 2018-19 budgets. The 12th Plan is the biggest and the most ambitious yet. We are already in the tail end of 2018 and, we have party pledges to fulfil, some of which have been needlessly extravagant.

So, there aren’t many days before the calm shall returns. What we must, more importantly our elected parliamentarians, should remind ourselves is to figure out the load in our hands and focus on achieving the best for the nation and the people. Going will get tough, of course, but we must prove ourselves what steel we are made of.