Paro’s councilor-elect Ugyen Tshering said he knew he would win.
The 49-year-old entrepreneur from Goongju, Lamgong, said it was his third time contesting for a seat in the House of Review.
“People told me that they would support me and I was confident,” said Ugyen Tshering.
Voters said capability and experience was what they looked for in their representative.
Ugyen Tshering had vote count lead in six of Paro’s 10 gewogs. He also had good support from Dokar, Dopshar-ri, Hoongrel, and Nagya gewogs that did not have a candidate running for NC seat.
Shaba gewog proved disappointing for the gewog’s nominee, Chencho Dorji. Of the five polling stations in the gewog, he lost to Ugyen Tshering by 156 votes at four polling stations.
Of 18,433 eligible voters in Paro, Nagya had the highest (2,735). Wangchang and Lamgong followed with 2,244 and 2,196 eligible voters respectively.
Ugyen Tshering won a landslide victory against five other NC candidates from Paro, securing the highest EVM and postal (646) votes. The greatest support came from his own gewog, Lamgong, with 898 EVM votes out of 4,117 he secured.
Of the 32 polling stations, Tshendu Gang had the lowest number of eligible voters at 62. Only 26 voters turned up to vote and 23 voted for Ugyen Tshering. Sonam Tashi, 29, got three votes from the station. The rest of the candidates did not get any votess from Tshendu Gang.
Ugyen Tshering got the highest vote, 259, from Jangsa-Rumna Bridge polling station in Dopshar-ri, which had the highest registered voters of all the polling stations.
Sonam Tashi got 2,491 votes including 455 postal votes. Voters said that they were impressed with Sonam Tashi’s oratory skills during the public debate and common forums.
Dawchu from Doteng gewog got 1,101 votes, followed by Wangchang’s Ugyen Dorji and Jangchub Dorji of Loong-nyi with 985 and 945 votes respectively. Chencho Dorji from Shaba secured 688 votes, the lowest.
Voter turnout in Paro was 60.28 percent. Of the total 18,433 eligible voters, 10,973 exercised their franchise.
Dechen Tshomo | Paro