The Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) president contesting from South Thimphu was expected to win. Lotay Tshering didn’t disappoint his party. It was a landslide victory for DNT in the president’s constituency.

Lotay Tshering secured 2,816 votes out of 5,592 votes cast. Close to the president was Druk Phuensum Tshogpa’s (DPT) Kinley Tshering with 1,173. The PDP’s Tandin Dorji came third with 1,133.

However, north Thimphu went to PDP with the party securing 1,333 votes out of 4,218 votes. DNT came second.

The 27 polling stations in Thimphu had 14,511 eligible voters. Loselling Middle Secondary School, Jigme Losel Primary School and Zilukha Middle Secondary School have more than 1,000 eligible voters. Tagsidthang polling station in North Thimphu and Zamtog ORC in South Thimphu had the lowest eligible voters, 43 and 88 respectively.

Of the 9,810 voters from Thimphu who voted during the primary round of the National Assembly elections, 4,027 voted for DNT. PDP and DPT secured 2,466 and 2,307 votes respectively. Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party (BKP) managed 1,010 votes.

Before the poll day started, election officials in Thimphu conducted a mock poll at the polling stations where the officials demonstrated how the electronic voting machine (EVM) functions and cleared all the data entered during the mock.

The EVMs were then sealed in front of the party representatives and the voters present to ensure that there were no votes in the EVMs before the poll day.

It was learnt that some polling stations in Thimphu gave some minor problems, which were solved immediately.

Election officials at Zilukha polling station had to use the stand-by EVM after the EVM that was set up gave some problem. According to sources, about 13 people had voted in the first EVM, which was recorded and added in the total votes.

In almost all the polling stations in Thimphu, the voters turned up an hour before the poll day started.

Dema, 57, said she came to vote early so that she can go and attend the Thimphu Drubchoe at Tashi Chodzong.

Despite being ill, another voter, Tshewang Lhamo, 71, said she came to vote because she understands how important her vote is. “I knew about all the four parties by watching BBS and I have already decided which party to vote for.”

“I voted for the party which I feel would benefit the people and the country,” she said.

Dechen Tshomo

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