If there was one thing Jai Bir was sure of, it was winning from his constituency, Phuentsholing.

The Nyamrup candidate was full of confidence. His confidence comes from his rapport with the people in the Phuentsholing constituency, Chukha. Jai Bir Rai has a winning record.

Jai Bir Rai represented DNT and contested from the same constituency in 2013 and won although his party couldn’t make it through to the general round. DNT then won only two seats. One was his.

Having won comfortably on Thursday, Jai Bir Rai said the people of his constituency gave him full support mainly because of his experience and integrity. JB Rai thrashed his opponent winning 5,586 votes compared with the 2,380 votes the DPT candidate secured.

DPT candidate Tashi said the result was unexpected. However, he said that it has been a great journey participating in the elections.

DNT swept both the constituencies in Chukha.

The people of Bongo-Chapcha constituency elected Tshewang Lhamo of DNT as their representative. Tshewang Lhamo won 6,632 votes, almost double of the votes won by her contestant Pemba.

Although the poll day coincided with the annual Chukha tshechu, the numbers of voters increased comparing with the primary round.

Tshewang Lhamo said she was confident to win in the general election after losing to the People Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the primaries. “The party’s ideology of narrowing the gap, people’s willingness to change and my experience as parliamentarian made the people vote for me,” she said.

The people of the Bongo-Chapcha agree that her victory could be because people were familiar with the candidate since she has served in the National Council (NC) from 2008-2013 and also participated in the NC election prior to joining DNT.

Some people said that after the PDP got out of the race, they voted for the former parliamentarian to give her another opportunity.

A voter, Phuntsho from Bjapcho Gewog said that since 2008, Chukha had been represented by candidates in ruling party in parliament with different parties. “This time also we have elected the candidates of the party who will be forming the government.”

DPT candidate Pemba said that he was confident after looking at the support people rendered to him before the election. However, he said he was happy with the result since he conducted himself with the due process of Election laws and accept the defeat positively. “I want to urge the voters in future not to indulge in any malpractice or corruption practices and take part in a free and fair manner,” Pempa said. 

Nim Dorji | Chukha

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