With only a day left for the National Council poll day, Zhemgang is all set with the preparations and processes.

Officials from the returning officer’s (RO) office said that before sending the electronic voting machines (EVMs) to the polling station, all the machines were thoroughly checked to ensure it would function properly.

“If the machines break down on poll day, we have sent backup machines too,” an official, who did not want to be named, said.

The dzongkhag has deployed 240 polling officials, excluding the security personnel. 

The official said polling officials left a few days ago since the dzongkhag has remote villages. “Some polling stations are two to three days walk away from the nearest road head.”

He said that all officials should reach their respective polling station by April 18 and those deployed to nearby polling station will leave today.

The two days refreshers course was conducted at the RO office and Panbang for lower Kheng. The official also said that they have made arrangements to get the election results through security handset in places that have connectivity problem.

Zhemgang has 40 polling stations, 19 in lower Kheng and 21 in upper Kheng.

The official said 688 people voted through the postal ballot facilitation booth. A total of 917 voters registered to vote through the facility.

Postal ballot facilitation booth was set up at Sonamthang Central School in Panbang and Zhemgang Central School.

Of the eight gewogs in the dzongkhag, Bardo gewog has the highest number of voters with about 2,795 registered voters. Bjoka has the lowest with about 1,250 voters.

Zhemgang has a total of 18,396 eligible voters (9,076 male and 9,320 female). 

Ugyen Dorji | Zhemgang