The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) has challenged the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) President Lotay Tshering to produce evidence to back the irresponsible statement he made when speaking to the people of Tsirang on October 9.

In a press release the party issued yesterday, DPT states that Lotay Tshering’s statement accusing retired ministers of Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) supporting the party’s new candidates by going around with money and seeking support is false and misleading.

“His appalling accusation is an indication of a desperate attempt to win at any cost with no regard to ethics and morality, the hallmark of healthy politics,” the press release states. “These false and baseless accusations tantamount to defamation and character assassination of people who have served the Tsawa-sum with complete dedication, integrity, and loyalty.”

DPT’s secretary general Sangay Phurba said that accusing their former ministers is a lie and DPT with its guiding principle of equity and justice will never resort to such activities. “He should prove whether they resorted to such activities and if not, he could be sued for making false accusations.”

Lotay Tshering’s statement, “Now the PDP supporters would be apprehensive of what would happen to them if DPT comes to power,” the press release states, is clearly meant to intimidate the PDP supporters into voting for DNT.

Sangay Phurba said this is not the first time the DNT president has accused DPT with false statement. Recently, he said, the president accused DPT by saying they had hired around 20 youth to operate fake accounts in Facebook, which is not true.

“In fact each DNT candidate has two fake accounts and the candidates are trained by their IT experts they have in their party,” Sangay Phurba claimed.

According to the secretary general, the DPT government never targeted the PDP supporters and treated all citizens equally based on the party’s core principle of equity and justice.

The DPT, if it receives the mandate of the people to govern in 2018, shall continue to be a government of the entire nation and respect every citizen equally, irrespective of party affiliation as expected by His Majesty The King and the people.

“The DNT president’s statement is sadly to foment divisions among the people for short-term political gains at the cost of the long-term peace and stability of the nation,” the press release states. “We hope the ECB and other relevant oversight bodies will look into the matter very seriously.”

Nim Dorji