Trongsa is all set to conduct the third National Council elections. 

The two-day refresher training programme for the presiding officers and polling officers concluded yesterday with hands-on training on the handling of electronic voting machine (EVM). 

Along with the election materials, 115 polling officials will be dispatched to 22 different polling stations in five gewogs today. The polling officials will also conduct a mock session to create awareness for voters.

The returning officer, Kinzang Tobgye said that sealing of EVM has been done and an extra set of EVM would be taken to all polling stations in case of malfunction. “We are also monitoring the road condition and studying the rainfall pattern,” he said. This, he said was necessary to have backup plans should a roadblock occur.

Of the 740 conventional postal ballots issued, the office of the returning officer has so far received 625 ballots.  About 101 postal ballots are still to come. The dzongkhag has 10 registered postal ballot voters who are serving their prison term as open-air prisoners. 

All 10 ballots have been received. Election officials expect all postal ballots to reach them before poll day.

Election officials said that they were still receiving the postal ballot and that they were instructed by the Election Commission of Bhutan to accept postal ballots until the morning of April 20.

The dzongkhag has not encountered any disputes related to the elections so far.

Tshering Dorji | Trongsa