LG: Sonam Dendup of Yuendruchhoeling is the new Langthel gup after he won the bye-election on November 20.

The gup elect will serve for the remainder of his predecessor’s term of office, which is until local government elections in 2016.

Sonam Dendup won 364 of the total 583 votes cast. The other candidate, Pema Tashi of Dangdung secured 219 votes.  The bye-election was held exactly a month after former Langthel gup was expelled from the office.  The gup was relived from the office on October 20 after he was convicted for bribery.

The new gup, Sonam Dendup will however serve only for the remainder of the former gup’s term as per section 580 of the election act of Bhutan. Section 580 of the election act states a member elected to fill a casual vacancy shall only serve for the remainder of his/her predecessor’s term of office.

The voter turnout was however only negligible with just 29.02 percent of the total 2009 registered voters exercising their franchise. All the 583 votes were also casted on EVM.

There was no postal ballot.

Meanwhile, Sonam Dendup won’t be joining the office until the end of election petition period. The election petition period started from November 20 and would end by 4PM of December 4.

As of yesterday no petition has been recorded in the electoral office.

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