Thukten Zangpo

The Office of Returning Officers in Thimphu has reported 24 rejections out of the 1,959 postal ballots received as of yesterday, accepting only 1,935 postal ballots.

North-Thimphu constituency had eight rejected postal ballots, while South-Thimphu had 16 rejections.

These rejections were identified upon opening envelope A on January 7. The office will continue to receive postal ballots until noon today. 

The opening of Envelope B, which contains the actual ballot paper, will commence from noon today.

The primary reasons for most rejections were incorrect or absence of citizenship identity card numbers provided during the completion of the identity declaration certificate within envelope A. Issues also included the absence of a signature from the competent witness and instances where the witness was underage. 

The dispatched postal ballots numbered 2,247, with 878 in North-Thimphu and 1,369 in South-Thimphu. However, only 755 were received for North-Thimphu, including 15 from overseas and 16 through special early voting; for South-Thimphu, 1,204 were received, including nine from overseas and 31 from special early voting.

Despite encountering difficulty due to slippery and snowy roads while travelling to Soe and Lingzhi, all officials have been successfully deployed to their respective polling stations, ensuring the smooth progress of the electoral process.

Thimphu, with 26 polling stations, is divided equally between North-Thimphu and South-Thimphu constituencies.

The total registered voters in Thimphu stand at 17,397, comprising 7,640 in the North and 9,757 in the South. This reflects a slight increase from the primary election, where there were 17,338 registered voters.