If the figures don’t change the party will be disqualified from receiving the state funding in the next round of the Parliamentary elections in 2023.

As per the provisional results from the election commission, Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party won only 28,473 or 9.78 percent of the total 291,098 votes cast yesterday.

Securing the least number of votes among the four political parties contesting the National Assembly elections 2018, Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party bowed out of the race yesterday.

The party secured the least number of votes (1,506) also from Dewathang-Gomdar constituency in Samdrupjongkhar, the constituency of its president Neten Zangmo.

Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) won the highest number of votes (4,020), Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) 2,432, and People’s Democratic Party secured 1,880. PDP had won from the constituency in the 2013 general elections and elected its member, former education minister Mingbo Dukpa.

The BKP president was among the first voters at the polling station yesterday morning in Dewathang turning up before 9am.

She also attended the opening of postal ballots in the afternoon. She remained composed throughout during the counting and compiling of postal ballot results. She left after the postal ballots results were declared. At midnight yesterday, the president congratulated DNT and DPT on the successful outcome of the primary elections on her Instgram page.

“Tashi Delek also to PDP for being part of the journey towards building a vibrant democracy,” she wrote. “I also wish to sincerely thank those who believed in us and our values, our supporters and not the least of all, the great warriors of BKP who consciously and courageously set to redefine politics and politicians, befitting our great GNH nation.”

By then results from other constituencies have been running viral on social media and the party had lost in most of them.

Voters who spoke to Kuensel said that some of the candidates were not convincing at the common forums that were broadcast on national television. For the president, mostly elders in the gewogs said that she was a good candidate and a leader. Despite that, support for Neten Zangmo came mostly from postal voters. She received 815 postal votes compared to 691 votes on the electronic voting machine.

Some said that they voted fearing it might not make it to the 10 percent margin needed for state funding in the next elections. However, those votes fell short.

The party congratulated the two parties that got through to the general round of the National Assembly elections on its social media page. It thanked its candidates and those from People’s Democratic Party for giving their best. “For BKP, the journey has just begun for 2023.”

Tshering Palden | Samdrupjongkhar