the journalist covers elections 2013 in bhutan

Staying voiceless on Election Day

Voters braves the bad weather

Post Election Interview5 3

TheJournalist

Vol 4 Issue 18 June 2, 2013 www.thejournalist.bt Nu 10

Primary election result explained

See on PG 04See on PG 04

Creatures of habit: Bringing back the familiar

| Ugyen Wangmo - Thimphu

The said it all but the whole nation is still poring over the primary election

outcome looking for a deeper meaning.

But the political analyst, ex-plains the result putting to rest the ‘why and how’ about the result.

According to the findings of the political analyst, Druk Phunen-sum Tshogpa’s (DPT) success in garnering the highest vote is at-tributed to four possible aspects.

Firstly, it is the track record of DPT for having fulfilled 150 pledges out of 153 promises which was made to the people in 2008.

Secondly, the leadership of DPT was proven and tested. It was found that people gave a lot of at-tention and thought on the need of good leader in a nation. People wanted a leader who can espouse the country’s cause international-ly, and secure the nations security and sovereignty poised as Bhutan is precariously between two gigan-tic neighbors.

According to the analysis, it is no small business to be left in the hands of inexperienced leaders for a tiny country like Bhutan as its sovereign independence will al-ways be its biggest concern.

Most electorate thought about is and felt the country cannot be governed by an unknown quan-tity.

The third reason for DPT’s win was analyzed to be their huge presence in the rural areas, which was a well known and well ac-cepted brand.

As for the fourth reason, DPT had a good team and most im-portantly, their manifesto was far ahead of the others in terms of depth, vision and implementation plan, to name just a few.

Now, coming to the win by

May 31: Voters queued up to bring back the parties they are most familiar with at Changbangdu polling station, Thimphu


BhuTANeSe elecTorATe decided to be the creatures of habit by

pushing the button for the two old parties they are only familiar with, Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Yesterday, election commis-sion of Bhutan (ecB) officially declared DPT who received the highest vote of 93,949 followed by PDP with 68,650 as the two winning party who will go into the general round of election.

Sonam Wangchuk, 61 year

old farmer from Pemagatshel said that PDP and DPT are the only two parties that he knows of. even if he had wanted a change in leadership he couldn’t bring himself to vote for the new entrants, because he didn’t know them at all to be able to believe in them.

he said, “Voting for either Nyamrup or chirwang would be like walking off a cliff blind-folded,” so “I chose to remain mired in misery than to head toward an unknown.”

Tandin Wangmo, 42, gov-ernment servant said, “Bhuta-nese people don’t want change

but only want to live on with the same experience that they know very well.”

She pointed out that when Bhutan transitioned from monarchy to democracy, Bhutanese whined over the change.

Now, people have grown very comfortable and used to the former government that they rejected the ‘change’ that might have done them well.

She however would have wanted a new government, but now with the old parties back she will have to accept the de-feat that the “so called change

7Vol 4 Issue 19 June 9, 2013Vol 4 Issue 23 July 14, 2013

Staying voiceless on Election Day

Voters braves the bad weather

Post Election Interview5 3

TheJournalist

Vol 4 Issue 18 June 2, 2013 www.thejournalist.bt Nu 10


See on PG 04See on PG 04



The said it all but the whole nation is still poring over the primary election

outcome looking for a deeper meaning.

But the political analyst, ex-plains the result putting to rest the ‘why and how’ about the result.

According to the findings of the political analyst, Druk Phunen-sum Tshogpa’s (DPT) success in garnering the highest vote is at-tributed to four possible aspects.

Firstly, it is the track record of DPT for having fulfilled 150 pledges out of 153 promises which was made to the people in 2008.

Secondly, the leadership of DPT was proven and tested. It was found that people gave a lot of at-tention and thought on the need of good leader in a nation. People wanted a leader who can espouse the country’s cause international-ly, and secure the nations security and sovereignty poised as Bhutan is precariously between two gigan-tic neighbors.

According to the analysis, it is no small business to be left in the hands of inexperienced leaders for a tiny country like Bhutan as its sovereign independence will al-ways be its biggest concern.

Most electorate thought about is and felt the country cannot be governed by an unknown quan-tity.

The third reason for DPT’s win was analyzed to be their huge presence in the rural areas, which was a well known and well ac-cepted brand.

As for the fourth reason, DPT had a good team and most im-portantly, their manifesto was far ahead of the others in terms of depth, vision and implementation plan, to name just a few.

Now, coming to the win by

May 31: Voters queued up to bring back the parties they are most familiar with at Changbangdu polling station, Thimphu


BhuTANeSe elecTorATe decided to be the creatures of habit by

pushing the button for the two old parties they are only familiar with, Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Yesterday, election commis-sion of Bhutan (ecB) officially declared DPT who received the highest vote of 93,949 followed by PDP with 68,650 as the two winning party who will go into the general round of election.

Sonam Wangchuk, 61 year

old farmer from Pemagatshel said that PDP and DPT are the only two parties that he knows of. even if he had wanted a change in leadership he couldn’t bring himself to vote for the new entrants, because he didn’t know them at all to be able to believe in them.

he said, “Voting for either Nyamrup or chirwang would be like walking off a cliff blind-folded,” so “I chose to remain mired in misery than to head toward an unknown.”

Tandin Wangmo, 42, gov-ernment servant said, “Bhuta-nese people don’t want change

but only want to live on with the same experience that they know very well.”

She pointed out that when Bhutan transitioned from monarchy to democracy, Bhutanese whined over the change.

Now, people have grown very comfortable and used to the former government that they rejected the ‘change’ that might have done them well.

She however would have wanted a new government, but now with the old parties back she will have to accept the de-feat that the “so called change

7

Chhukha

Dagana

Punakha

Wangdue Phodrang

Sarpang

Tsira

ng

TrongsaBum

thang

Lhuentse Trashiyangtse

Trashigang

Pemagatsh

el

Monggar

Samdrup

Jongkhar

Zhemgang

Gasa

Haa

Paro

Samtse

Thimphu

PDP : 32 DPT : 15

Jigme Y Thinley

Jigme Y Thinley

Thinley Palden Dorji

Kinley Dorji

Kinga TsheringThakur Singh Powdyel

Dorji WangdiNanda Lal Rai

Votes : 3,742

Votes : 3,742

Votes : 2,741

Votes : 356

Votes : 2,047 Votes : 2,877

Votes : 1,906 Votes : 2,830

Won by 2,731 votes

Won by 2,731 votes

Lost by 2 votes

Lost by 2 votes

Won by 33 votesLost by 2,362 votes

Won by 42 votesLost by 2,402 votes

Tshering Tobgay

Ritu Raj Chhetri

Sangay Tshoki

Tshering

Norbu WangchukTek Bahadur Subba Kezang Wangmo Kinley Om Dorji Choden

Pema DrukpaRinzin Dorje

Votes : 1,503

Votes : 5,954

Votes : 2,014

Votes : 1,864

Votes : 2,743 Votes : 5,239 Votes : 3,571 Votes : 1,722 Votes : 2,541

Votes : 358 Votes : 5,232

Won by 901 votes

Won by 3,635 votes

Lost by 33 votes

Lost by 42 votes

Won by 2 votes Won by 2,362 votes Won by 1,186 votes Won by 403 votes Won by 1,350 votes

Won by 2 votes Won by 2,402 votes

| Dawa Norbu & Dechen Dolkar

The Election Commission of Bhutan will make a formal declaration of results today morning.

The VotersRegistered voters : 38,1790Total Voter turnout : 25,2249Highest voter turnout : Khatoed-Laya constituency in Gasa Dzongkhag

Total registered voters : 902Total voter turnout : 802

Lowest voter turnout : Gelephu constituency, Sarpang Dzongkhag

Total registered voters : 14,648Total voter turnout : 9,318

Green House Site

Could be used as Counselling room when the trees grow up

Proposed Future Camp Site

Concrete Water Tank

Fruiting Apple Trees (13 Nos.)

Apple Orchard

Plantation of Vegetables which require less water

Plantation of Vegetables which require more water

Syntex Tank with Sprinkle Facility

Proposed House

SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2013 | 3THE JOURNALIST2 | SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2013

NATIONTHE JOURNALIST

Finally the calm of consciousness returns after the drunkenness of political delirium. Morning after the poll day 2013 election, nation wakes

up to the white horse galloping across the country with the pride of victory.

Today the nation glimpsed the first out line of reality decided by the nation together; it is a new government which they have decided for, a government that will bring change and dynamism.

Knowing that electing public officials is the most important act of any citizen in any democracy, we choose leaders who will have the power to make decisions that bind all of us together.

We found that it was one of the most complex things we can do in life if we try to do it rationally. It was not an easy task to reflect critically on the criteria used and the electoral choices that resulted from the ‘criteria’.

But we did it, voted rationally for the benefit of the whole nation, keeping in mind and considering the issues that matter the most to the nation at this juncture of time and against which the candidates were assessed.

The results are out and the biggest question on everyone’s mind has been answered, Peoples Democratic Party triumphed over Druk Phuensum Tshogpa having won in 32 constituencies out of 47.

But that is hardly good news for those who are deeply attuned to the old government.

The outcome suggests that Druk Phuensum Tshogpa was unable to use their relatively popular pledges or their success during the past five years to raise enough support for the DPT candidates in yesterday’s elections.

A closer look at the outcome also showed that many incumbents who were seemingly popular were actually defeated by small margins at the polls.

The election result had much to do with the change the nation was looking for.

Nation wakes up to a new dawn

EEDITORIAL

CEO: Sonam Gyeltshen

Editor: Ugyen Wangmo

Dzongkha Editor: Khandu Dorji

Reporters: Pema Denkar, Dechen Dolkar, Tashi Namgyal, Usha Drukpa, Karma Dema, Jigme Thugten, Tshering Tashi, Passang Dema, Dawa Norbu

Designer: Phuntsho Choden

Marketing: S.Choden (17671715)

Circulation Manager: Damchoe Wangmo

Published by : The Journalist, Tshering Sonam Building, Norzin Lam, Thimphu, Bhutan. PO. 1336. Tel. : (2) 331653 Fax : (2) 321680 Email : [email protected] [email protected]

Printed at : Kuensel Corporation, Thimphu, Bhutan

| Karma Dema & Usha Drukpa

COINCIDING with the first sermon of Lord Buddha, 52

women prisoners were sent to an agriculture-based female open air prison in Dawakha, Paro, which is first of its kind in the country.

The noble project which was envisioned by His Majesty the King was for-mally launched by the Venerable Yangbi Lopon on July 12.

In an earlier similar launch, 151 male pris-oners were sent to as-sist the reconstruction of Lhakhangs in Paro and Haa. However because of the strenuous physical work and other associat-ed risks involved, woman were not sent along with the other male prisoners in the earlier project.

But the need to attend the women prisoners with definite programs of ref-ormation and rehabilita-tion geared up. The Royal

Bhutan Police, upon the command of His Majesty the King, in collaboration with the Ministry of Ag-riculture and Forests, de-veloped a project to start the agriculture based “Fe-male Open Air Prison.” The project, “Female Open Air Prison” will pro-vide the female prison-ers enough time to help themselves in the process of decriminalization and reintegration into main-stream society besides providing them with the necessary adjustment in life.

At present, the female prisoners are released di-rectly from the prison on completion of their sen-tence. And with such situ-ation they were known to have faced critical reinte-gration problems without the social or monetary support to adjust them back to the normal life.

Such circumstances were deemed as factors that might force the pris-oners to resort back to

their criminal habits and increase the recidivism and crime in the society.

But the agriculture based female open air prison will provide the prisoners with an oppor-tunity to make necessary adjustments in life before reintegrating in to the society and help them in the process of decriminal-ization.

The main objective of such prison is to reduce overcrowding in prison and to maintain good liv-ing conditions. Besides it will also enable female prisoners to earn income before their release. As such it will help make them a valuable human resource, providing a plat-form to live a healthy life in the society without any stigma after release.

In addition the open air prison will also promote “family bonding”, giving the female prisoners with an opportunity to rejoin with their husbands, chil-dren and live with them

in the premises. Such contact will help improve the psychological con-ditions of the prisoners. A prison will function as a farm focused on the pro-duction of organic vege-tables with latest farming technology in the form of a mechanized farming or green house farming. The organic products will be marketed and supplied to Thimphu and other near-by areas.

The prisoners will be entitled for payments of wages, but the amount earned from the supply of vegetables will be accrued as their income.

It will serve as a pur-pose to give the female prisoners an opportunity to abandon their old hab-its and lead a productive lifestyle.

Dechen wangmo, 50 year old prisoner said that she is really excited and looking forward to the new environ.

She is happy that at their new home they will

be mostly engaged in ag-ricultural activities which according to her will al-low them to help contrib-ute to the society. And she pledged to fulfill the dreams of His Majesty the king.

The female prisoners were all ready to embark on a noble cause and be the role model of the country. And all of them agreed that they are very lucky to be bestowed such an opportunity which will give them a better future as opposed to those who are released directly after the completion of their sentence.

Apart from organic products, Chief of Po-lice, Dasho Kibchu Nam-gyal said that, “in future we are also planning to set up a dairy and poultry farming for the prisoners of Dawakha.” The biggest benefit of the project however will be “Reunification of the mother and child and the family,” he concluded.

| Dawa Norbu

AS THE electorates travelled around to vote for the general

election it also appeared to be an occasion where people stretched across the country had come to-gether to their respective home town, reunited with their families.

It is evident that most of the people in Bhutan are stretched across the coun-try by nature of work, their service placement and settlement.

However the poll day hasd gathered them to-gether reuniting all the family members together, which otherwise is a rare occasion.

“Nine members of my family has gathered to-gether purposefully for the poll day,” said Sonam Chophel from Trashigang Thrimshing. He however has more members in his family but couldn’t be with them since they had voted through the postal ballot.

Still, he is excited since most of his family mem-bers had gathered to-gether for the significant event.

He said that over the course of time it had be-come difficult for all the family members to come together and is glad for the Election Day to have brought them together.

Apart from fulfilling his civic responsibility it was also a pleasant oppor-tunity to spend his time with his family as it had been a long time that he had stayed away from his family.

He went on describing

his emotions in two words “eager and happy”. He explained that he is eager to vote and happy in way the poll day has brought together, almost his entire family member.

Similary, Wangmo told that she had come home to Paro a day prior to the Election Day.

Except for her sister all the other family members comprising of seven fam-ily members inclusive of her has gathered together for the poll day.

More than anything she is happy for the time she will get to spend with her family, she added joy-fully.

She also elaborated on how it is very important for the people to be happy and encouraged to vote and exercise their fran-chise carefully given the significance of the day. Being happy will play a huge role in making sure that people participate in-telligently, she explained.

She added that she is very excited to see almost all of her family come to-gether and more impor-tantly happy for she will vote together with her family. However she said that she had voted for the party of her choice rather than going with the deci-sion of her family.

Similarly kezang Choden from Pemagat-shel a mother of four children said that all of her family members have come home to village ex-cept for one daughter who stays in Thimphu. She said that she is happy and thankful for such occa-sion as she got the chance to meet with her children

since during other times they stay away from her owing to their different work places.

Even if her family has come together only with the reason to vote, she is still happy for there can be no cause greater than the purpose to vote for a government, as a reason to bring them together.

Similarly, Jangchu Dema of Bumthang said that all of his children are eligible voters. But two of her children will not be joining the family since they have already voted through postal ballot. Still she is happy for her other children is home to vote together as a family.

While going around the polling stations in Thimphu, it was found that most of the elector-ates have come with their family to cast their vote.

At the changangkha polling station it was Tenzin Pelzang, 79 year old grandfather who was leading his seven family members to vote. He said that his entire family has gathered together espe-cially to cast their ballot. He expressed his excite-ment on how it was the first time when his sons, daughter and grandchil-dren had all come togeth-er.

In some other parts of the Dzongkhags, it was learnt that the families had picnicked in the grounds around the poll-ing station.

Almost in all the polling stations that the Journal-ist had covered found that the electorate had made the day a family event.

5Sunday, June 2, 2013 THE JOURNALIST

From PG 01 From PG 01

Voters braves the bad weather| Pema Denkar -May 31, Phuentsholing

Downpours and exceedingly sloppy and

muddy ground didn’t stop hundred of senior citizens to come out in force to vote.

The weather was defi-nitely harsh for those who had to walk, but there was a sea of smiles for having braved the bad weather.

Sheltered under the umbrella which couldn’t keep the hard rain out, drenched Asma, a 73 year old from Gumaungni village under Phuentsholing Dungkhag had walked almost three hours to reach her polling sta-tion at Ahley gewog center.

Wet and cold, she waited in queue for

her turn to vote for the party of her choice.

“I am determined to vote, don’t care about getting wet because to vote is a very important affair in my life,” she said.

She told The Journalist that she had walked all the way with the opti-mism that her effort will be counted in choosing for the right party.

“I have been walking since my childhood till now,” she said, adding that she now hopes that the new government would bring in some development to her vil-lage and also solve her woes of having to walk for her entire life.

But sadly, “my hus-band could not come to vote because he is sick and could not walk.” She said.

According to her there

is no school and road connectivity in her vil-lage. Students have to walk for five hours every day from home to the nearest school at Ahley.

likewise, 70 year old Saverti who had come to vote at Toribari poll-ing station walked back home with satisfied smile after casting her vote.

She said that she have casted her vote to the party of her choice and is hopeful that the party serves the country well.

“I am old but still I voted thinking that I can play a part in giv-ing my grandchildren a country with good leader,” she said.

Besides it is her civic duty as a citizen to take an active role.

While, hundreds of voters walked the Pasakha-Phuentsholing highway bracing the

heavy rainfall with positive spirits which remained throughout, there were few who wished for some trans-portation arrangements.

Budi Maya, 82-year-old is one of them, who got a lift from one of the voters to reach her reg-istered polling station. From Malbasi village in Pasakha, she is the only member from her family who had come to vote for the election.

“I am happy and satisfied that I made it because I care about the future of Bhutan and know that my vote will count,” she said.

Most of the voters in Phuentsholing the Journalist talked to, had considered the primary round of election as an important occasion which could not be ig-nored for an unimport-

THE JOURNALIST

NatioN4 Sunday, June 2, 2013

HHoME

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), according to the analysis, they won be-cause of their Brand.

Besides they were also successful in gathering support from the armed forces.

In addition they were able to gain support from cab drivers with their promise to stop the civil servants from operating taxis.

And PDP was also suc-cessful in bringing the youths on board with them because their mani-festo addressed the con-cerns and issues of youth. For example, they will initiate unemployment allowance.

And finally, PDP had the best candidates repre-senting the constituencies from the south.

The analysis released also explained why Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa( DNT) and Druk chirwang Tshogpa (DcT) lost the battle.

It was found that DNT lost mainly because the Bhutanese society is just not ready to ac-cept a woman leader. Besides, the brand was new, known fairly well in the urban areas but not much in the rural areas.

In addition, DNT didn’t have clear cut plan as to how to take the country forward but only harped about “peoples’ govern-ment”, it said.

In the case of DcT, the loss was expected said the analysis. DcT did not exist as a party, it was driven by one person and all they did was try and sell that one person throughout the country.

And also it was youth driven, another reason for its defeat.

“People are not averse to change; they looked for a better alternative and there not any-be it interms of people or ideas,” said the political analyst.


is nowhere in sight and is unlikely for the next five years.”

Sonam choden, 29 year old corporate em-ployee said that change in leader will bring in new rules and ideas. And it will in turn demand ex-tra work and energy so as to be able to get adapted with the change.

“Subsequently it is always easier to say no to a possible new leader and stick with what one is already familiar with and avoid the trouble,” she said.

But it is not to say that she is happy with the for-mer government. There are numerous complaints against their perfor-mance and it will always haunt her. But she will push it back in her mind and learn to live with it

just so that she doesn’t have to go through the ordeal of being surprised by the conduct of a new leader.

Ngawang Dorji, 37 year old private em-ployee strongly rejects change in leadership since, “change will only interfere with the proper functioning of what has already been put in place,” he said.

According to him it is better to keep the Devil one knows than the god one is not familiar with.

change in leadership means changing the country and surprising the people with new sys-tems and experience.

Bhutanese people have become automatic to the current systems and situations, and are just not ready to be jolted by


ant reason such as ‘bad weather’.

Among the senior citizens were also the youths who didn’t mind the rain to feel the expe-rience of being counted and heard.

Anjusubba, a 19 year old who casted her first ballot said, “I feel im-portant and proud,” and was glad that she was of age to be a part of such an important decision.

likewise, other youths, The Journalist talked to said that they were happy and eager to take part in choosing the right party for the benefit of the country and the people.

Ahley polling station saw a very good voter turnout but the polling station at Toribari how-ever saw fewer voters, comparatively.

May 31: 82-year-old Budi maya who braved the heavy downpour to cast her ballot

the effect of change, be it good or bad.

Besides whom better to entrust the country with, than the leaders who al-ready has experience and knows what to make of the country.

Similary, Tashi Zang-mo, a student said that a change in leadership will bring upon the country laws and systems which are unfamiliar. And that she said will distract the people and be confusing in many uncomfortable ways.

So in that regard she is happy that the former two parties are back in the picture.

“I am now waiting on who will be the ruling government to see if Bhu-tanese people really are the creatures of habit,” she says.

With deepest respect, the management of

Ugyen Phendeyling Resort & Meditation Center

join all the citizens in wishingYour Majesty

a very wonderful Birthday.Our prayers for

Your Majesty’s good health, long life and happiness.

Ugyen Phendeyling Resort & Meditation CenterSatsham Chorten, Paro, Bhutan

8 Sunday, June 2, 2013 THE JOURNALIST

དཱ་ཇོར་ན་ལིསཊི། རེས་གཟའ་ཟླ་བ། རིམ་ཨང་ ༣ པའི་ཐོན་རིམ་ ༤༩ པ།

ཆུ་འབྲུག་ཟླཝ་ ༤ པའི་ཚེས་ ༡༦། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༣ ཟླཝ་ ༦ པའི་ཚེས་ ༡ །

མགར་ས་རྫོང་ཉམས་གསོ་ཞུ་ཚར་ཏེ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ མགར་ས་མཐོང་སྨོན་རྫོང་དེ་ མེ་མཆོད་བཞེས་མི་ལུ་བརྟེན་ཏེ་ ཉམས་ཆགས་ཤོར་བའི་ཤུལ་ལུ་ ལོ་ངོ་ ༦ དེ་ཅིག་གི་རྒྱབ་ལས་ ཉམས་གསོ་ཞུ་ཚར་ཏེ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

རྫོང་ཉམས་གསོ་ཞུའི་ལཱ་ཚུ་ཡང་ སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༠ ལས་ འགོ་བཙུགས་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་རུང་ ལཱ་འབད་བའི་ནམ་དུས་ལུ་ བྱ་སྟབས་མ་བདེ་བའི་དཀའ་ངལ་ལེ་ཤ་ཅིག་ཐོན་མི་ལུ་བརྟེན་ཏེ་ དུས་ཡུན་མངམ་འགོར་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

དེ་ཡང་ སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༨ ལུ་ མེ་མཆོད་བཞེས་ཡོདཔ་ད་ དེའི་སྐབས་ལུ་ བཀའ་བརྒྱད་ལྷ་ཁང་དང་ བདག་སྐྱོང་ཡིག་ཚང་ དེ་ལས་ སྐུ་རྟེན་གསུང་རྟེན་ཚུ་ལུ་ གནོད་སྐྱོན་བྱུང་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

ད་རེས་ ཉམས་བཅོས་ཞུ་ཡོད་པའི་ རྫོང་དེ་ ཧེ་མའི་བཟོ་བཀོད་དང་ དུམ་གྲ་རེ་མ་འདྲཝ་སྦེ་ཡོད་ཨིན་པས།

ཉམས་བཅོས་ལཱ་འབད་བའི་སྐབས་ལུ་ ལས་མི་མ་ཐོབ་མི་ གནམ་གཤིས་གནས་སྟངས་ཀྱི་ དཀའ་ངལ་

ཐོན་ལམི་ལུ་བརྟེན་ཏེ་ དུས་ཡུན་རིངམོ་ འགོར་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

རྫོང་ཉམས་གསོ་ལས་འགུལ་གྱི་དོན་ལས་ མ་དངུལ་ས་ཡ་ ༡༥ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་དེ་ ཡོད་སར་ལས་ ད་ཚུན་ རྫོང་ཕྱི་ཁའི་ལཱ་དང་ ནང་ན་གི་སྡེབ་རིས་ཚུ་མཇུག་བསྡུ་སྟེ་ཡོད་མི་དེ་གིས་ ཟད་འགྲོ་དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ ས་ཡ་ ༡༤ དེ་ཅིག་ བཏང་ཚར་ཏེ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

རྫོང་དེ་ནང་ནང་རྟེན་གཞན་ཚུ ་བཞེངས་ནི་འདི་ ཤུལ་མའི་ཟླཝ་དག་པ་ཅིག་གི་ནང་འཁོད་བསྒྲུབ་ཚུགས་པའི་རེ་བ་བསྐྱེད་དེ་སྦེ་འདུག

མགར་ས་རྫོང་འདི་ སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༡༦༤༨ ལུ་ ཞབས་དྲུང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་གིས་ གདན་ས་བཅགས་གནང་པའི་ཤུལ་ ལུ་སྡེ་སྲིད་དང་ བླ་ཆེན་ཚུ་གིས་ རིམ་པ་བཞིན་དུ་ རྒྱ་བསྐྱེད་མཛད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།

HHoME

༉ མི་དབང་ མངའ་བདག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གིས་ ལྷུན་རྩེ་རྫོང་ཁག་ སྨད་འཚོ་དང་ ཇ་རེ་རྒེད་འོག་གི་ ཁྱིམ་གུང་ ༡༡༢ ལུ་ ཟ་ཆས་ཀྱི་རིགས་ཆུམ་དེ་ཚུ་ གསོལ་རས་སྦེ་ གནང་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན།

དེ་ཡང་ ད་རེས་ འཕྲལ་ཁམས་ཅིག་ཁར་ ཆར་ཆུ་དང་ སེརཝ་རྐྱབ་མི་ལུ་བརྟེན་ཏེ་ ཁོང་གིས་ ལོ་ཐོག་ཚུ་ གནོད་པ་རྐྱབ་ཡོདཔ་ལས་ མི་ཚུ་ལུ་ ཟ་འཐུང་གི་དཀའ་ངལ་ཚུ་ སེལ་ཐབས་ལུ་ཨིན་པས།

ཆར་ཆུ་དང་ སེརཝ་གིས་ སྨད་འཚོ་རྒེད་འོག་གི་ས་གནས་ ཨུང་སྒར་དང་ དྲུག་ལ་ གོང་དར་དང་ སྟོང་སི་སྦི་ དེ་ལས་ གུ་ལི་སྤང་གི་ གཡུས་ཚན་ཚུ་ནང་གི་ ས་ཞིང་ཨེ་ཀར་ ༨༥ ལྷགཔ་ཅིག་གི་ གེ་ཛ་ཚུ་ གནོན་པ་རྐྱབ་ཡོདཔ་མ་ཚད་ ཇ་རེ་རྒེད་འོག་གི་ ལ་དྲོང་དང་པམ་ དེ་ལས་ ཡུམ་ཆེ་གི་ གཡུས་ཚན་ཚུ་ནང་ཡང་ གེ་ཛ་ཞིང་ ཨེ་ཀར་ ༢༥ དེ་ཅིག་ གནོད་པ་རྐྱབ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན།

ད་རུང་ རྒྱལ་པོའི་གཟིམ་དཔོན་ཡིག་

ཚང་གིས་ རྫོང་ཁག་ནང་ལས་ སྡེ་ཚན་ཅིག་བཟོ་སྟེ་ གནོད་པ་འབྱུང་ཡོད་པའི་ ས་ཁོངས་ཚུ་ནང་ བལྟ་བསྐོར་འབད་དེ་ འཕྲལ་གྱི་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་བཟུམ་ཅིག་སྦེ་ སྨད་འཚོ་རྒེད་འོག་ནང་ མོནམ་བྱཱ་གི་སོན་ཚུ་ཡང་ བཀྲམ་སྤེལ་འབད་ཡོད་པའི་ཁར་ ཇ་རེ་རྒེད་འོག་གི་ མི་ཚུ་གིས་ གནོད་པ་བརྐྱབ་ཡོད་པའི་ ཐོ་འདི་ཚུ་ ལོག་བསྐྱར་གསོ་འབད་མི་ནང་ རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ཚུ་ འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་མས།

ད་རུང་ གནོད་པ་བརྐྱབ་ཡོད་པའི་ གཡུས་ཚན་ཚུ་ནང་གི་ མི་སེར་ཚུ་ལུ་ ས་ཞིང་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་གི་ཐོག་ལས་ ས་འདི་ཚུ་ ཕྱག་མི་བདའ་ནི་དང་ འདི་བཟུམ་གྱི་དཀའ་ངལ་འདི་ མི་འཐོན་ནི་གི་དོན་ལུ་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་ཚུ་ཡང་ བྱིན་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

ད་རུང་ གྲོས་བསྟུན་གྱི་ཐོག་ལས་ ཤུལ་མམ་གྱི་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་འཆར་གཞི་ནང་ ཆུའི་གཡུར་བ་རྐྱབ་ནི་དེ་ གཙོ་རིམ་གཙོ་ཅིག་སྦེ་ བཞག་ནི་ལུ་ གྲོས་ཐག་བཅད་འདུག་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།

མི་དབང་ མངའ་བདག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གིས་ སྐྱིད་སྡུག་གི་གསོལ་རས།

༉ སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༨ ལུ་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ནང་ རྒྱལ་རབས་ཅན་གྱི་ དམང་གཙོའི་གཞུང་གི་ སྤྱི་ཚོགས་དང་པའི་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་འདུའི་ བཙག་འཐུ་ འགོ་འདྲེན་འཐབ་ཚར་ཏེ་ ལོ་ལྔའི་ཤུལ་ལས་ ད་རུང་རང་ སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ ༢ པའི་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་འདུ་གི་ འགོ་ཐོག་བཙག་འཐུ་འདི་ཡང་ མཇུག་བསྡུ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

འགོ་ཐོག་བཙག་འཐུའི་སྐབས་ལུ་ ཚོགས་པ་རྙིངམ་ འབྲུག་ཕུན་ཚོགས་པ་དང་ མི་སེར་དམངས་གཙོའི་ཚོགས་པ་ ༢ ཀྱི་ རྒྱལ་ཁ་ཐོབ་ཡོདཔ་ད་ ཁོང་ ༢ ཀྱིས་ སྤྱིར་བཏང་བཙག་འཐུའི་ནང་ དོ་འགྲན་འབད་ནི་ཨིན་པས།

མི་མང་ཤོས་ཅིག་གིས་ ཚོགས་

སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༣ གྱི་ འགོ་ཐོག་བཙག་འཐུ་མཇུག་བསྡུ་ཡོདཔ།པ་ ༢ ཆ་ར་གིས་ རྒྱལ་ཁ་ཐོབ་མི་ལུ་ རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ཡོད་ལུགས་ཚུ་བཤདཔ་ཨིན་རུང་ ལ་ལོ་གིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ རྒྱལ་ཁ་ཐོབ་མིའི་གྲལ་ཁར་ ཚོགས་པ་གསརཔ་ འབྲུག་མཉམ་རུབ་ཚོགས་པ་དང་ སྤྱིར་དབབ་ཚོགས་པ་ ༢ ལས་ ཅིག་ཡོད་པ་ཅིན་ ཟེར་བའི་རེ་བ་བསྐྱེད་དེ་འབད་རུང་ མནོ་བསམ་བཏང་དོ་བཟུམ་སྦེ་ གྲུབ་འབྲས་བྱུང་མ་ཚུགས་མི་ལུ་ བློ་ཕམ་བྱུང་ཡི་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།

དེ་བཟུམ་སྦེ་ འབྲུག་སྤྱིར་དབང་ཚོགས་པ་ནང་ འཐུས་མི་མངམ་ན་གཞོན་ཚུ་ཡོད་དེ་འབད་རུང་ ཚོགས་རྒྱན་གྱི་ གྲུབ་འབྲས་བལྟཝ་ད་ ན་གཞོན་ཚུ་ཚོགས་རྒྱན་བཙུགས་མི་ཚུ་གིས་ཡང་ ཚོགས་པ་ལུ་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་མ་

འབད་བས་ཟེར་ ན་གཞོན་མང་ཤོས་ཅིག་གིས་ བཤདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

མི་སེར་བརྒྱ་ཆ་ལས་ ༦༥ དེ་ཅིག་གིས་ འགོ་ཐོག་བཙག་འཐུའི་ནང་ འབྲུག་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་དང་ འབྲུག་མཉམ་རུབ་ཚོགས་པ་ ༢ ཀྱིས་འཐོབ་པ་ཅིན་ལེགས་ཤོམ་འོང་ནི་མས་ཟེར་བའི་ རེ་བ་བསྐྱེད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་རུང་ འབྲུག་མཉམ་རུབ་ཚོགས་པ་གིས་ རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ལེགས་ཤོམ་ཅིག་མ་ཐོབ་མི་ལུ་ མི་སེར་མ་ཤོས་ཅིག་ཧ་ལས་ཏེ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

ཨིན་རུང་ གྲོང་གསེབ་ཀྱི་ མི་སེར་ཚུ་ ཧེ་མ་ལས་ཡོད་པའི་ ཚོགས་པ་ ༢ ར་ སྤྱིར་བཏང་བཙག་འཐུའི་དོན་ལུ་གདམ་འཐུ་གྲུབ་མི་ལུ་ སེམས་དགའ་སྟེ་འདུག་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།

“This is what the people are saying about the primary election result”

Any party that can give me 5 acres of govern-ment land & transfer it to my name ASAP gets my vote, so my first option is DPT, but if other party give me good offer” I am ready to listen.

I wanted at least one new political party to win but it is the same old two political parties again. If people of Bhutan do not give oppor-tunity for new political parties to govern our country it would be a dynasty for the old same political party.

It will be all same as before unless they bring new changes and development in the coun-try. They give full support only to the civil servants despite them having the privileges of allowance and other remuneration. But we, private employee are ignored and left behind. I want the government who can support the private employee.

I don’t find any other party more capable then DPT and the people have chosen the right party.

I was expecting PDP to lead the election but however I am happy with the result.”“Although away from home, I keep myself up-dated with everything happening in my coun-try through social media and other sources. And I was eagerly waiting for the result to be updated on the social media.

I am very happy to know that DPT won the primary election. And for me both the leading parties are very good.

I am happy that the former party won the vote. I will feel secure only if the country is ruled by an experienced party. The former government have left unachieved work so they need to come back to continue with what they have started.

Sad! A new government should have come in. Bhutanese people don’t trust female leader going by the Nc result and primary result. If DNT had a prominent figure or a male leader then they might have had a chance. There are chances that even in the next election the two old parties will still win.The saddest part is despite the civil servants supporting for DNT they still voted for DPT in the end according to the postal ballot. Bhuta-nese don’t want change they want to stick to their old thing that they are used to.

I was sure that PDP and DPT will be leading the election.I watch television every time and I found the two leading parties more capable then the other two.” While her 69-year-old husband interrupts the conversation and said, “I was expecting Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa to be one of the leading parties.”Then the two goes on debating over the result both trying to convince each other over their view.

I was pretty sure that the DPT will be leading the election from the start. I don’t mean the other parties are not worth but DPT and PDP are much better.

I am really overwhelmed with the result and satisfied indeed. The result is because of the people who have voted and the people have decided for the right party. even though there had been two new political parties not one of them could make it to the general round of election. It will discourage the new parties from coming up in the future.

Deki Dema, 25, private employee, radhi-sakten constituency

chuki 29, South-Thimphu constituency

Buddha Gurung, 33, Tourist Guide, Gelephu Khamad constituency

Tshering lhamo, corporate employee in Phuentsholing, chhoeKhor-

TANG constituency.

Phuba Dorji, a Bhutanese citizen working in united States from

KABISA-TAloG constituency.

Tsheringmo, lhuentse

Yonten Phuntsho, 30, Fresh Graduate, Pemagatshel Khar Yurong constituency

Tashi Wangmo, civil Servant, Thimphu.

Aum Wangmo, 65-year-old resident of Phuentsholing.

Tashi lhamo, lAMGoNG-WANGchANG constituency in Paro

Phurba Tenzin 24, corporate employee, wamrong constitiuency

| Dawa Norbu & Dechen Dolkar - Thimphu

JULY 14, 2013 5Sunday, June 2, 2013 THE JOURNALIST

From PG 01 From PG 01

Voters braves the bad weather| Pema Denkar -May 31, Phuentsholing

Downpours and exceedingly sloppy and

muddy ground didn’t stop hundred of senior citizens to come out in force to vote.

The weather was defi-nitely harsh for those who had to walk, but there was a sea of smiles for having braved the bad weather.

Sheltered under the umbrella which couldn’t keep the hard rain out, drenched Asma, a 73 year old from Gumaungni village under Phuentsholing Dungkhag had walked almost three hours to reach her polling sta-tion at Ahley gewog center.

Wet and cold, she waited in queue for

her turn to vote for the party of her choice.

“I am determined to vote, don’t care about getting wet because to vote is a very important affair in my life,” she said.

She told The Journalist that she had walked all the way with the opti-mism that her effort will be counted in choosing for the right party.

“I have been walking since my childhood till now,” she said, adding that she now hopes that the new government would bring in some development to her vil-lage and also solve her woes of having to walk for her entire life.

But sadly, “my hus-band could not come to vote because he is sick and could not walk.” She said.

According to her there

is no school and road connectivity in her vil-lage. Students have to walk for five hours every day from home to the nearest school at Ahley.

likewise, 70 year old Saverti who had come to vote at Toribari poll-ing station walked back home with satisfied smile after casting her vote.

She said that she have casted her vote to the party of her choice and is hopeful that the party serves the country well.

“I am old but still I voted thinking that I can play a part in giv-ing my grandchildren a country with good leader,” she said.

Besides it is her civic duty as a citizen to take an active role.

While, hundreds of voters walked the Pasakha-Phuentsholing highway bracing the

heavy rainfall with positive spirits which remained throughout, there were few who wished for some trans-portation arrangements.

Budi Maya, 82-year-old is one of them, who got a lift from one of the voters to reach her reg-istered polling station. From Malbasi village in Pasakha, she is the only member from her family who had come to vote for the election.

“I am happy and satisfied that I made it because I care about the future of Bhutan and know that my vote will count,” she said.

Most of the voters in Phuentsholing the Journalist talked to, had considered the primary round of election as an important occasion which could not be ig-nored for an unimport-

THE JOURNALIST

NatioN4 Sunday, June 2, 2013

HHoME

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), according to the analysis, they won be-cause of their Brand.

Besides they were also successful in gathering support from the armed forces.

In addition they were able to gain support from cab drivers with their promise to stop the civil servants from operating taxis.

And PDP was also suc-cessful in bringing the youths on board with them because their mani-festo addressed the con-cerns and issues of youth. For example, they will initiate unemployment allowance.

And finally, PDP had the best candidates repre-senting the constituencies from the south.

The analysis released also explained why Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa( DNT) and Druk chirwang Tshogpa (DcT) lost the battle.

It was found that DNT lost mainly because the Bhutanese society is just not ready to ac-cept a woman leader. Besides, the brand was new, known fairly well in the urban areas but not much in the rural areas.

In addition, DNT didn’t have clear cut plan as to how to take the country forward but only harped about “peoples’ govern-ment”, it said.

In the case of DcT, the loss was expected said the analysis. DcT did not exist as a party, it was driven by one person and all they did was try and sell that one person throughout the country.

And also it was youth driven, another reason for its defeat.

“People are not averse to change; they looked for a better alternative and there not any-be it interms of people or ideas,” said the political analyst.


is nowhere in sight and is unlikely for the next five years.”

Sonam choden, 29 year old corporate em-ployee said that change in leader will bring in new rules and ideas. And it will in turn demand ex-tra work and energy so as to be able to get adapted with the change.

“Subsequently it is always easier to say no to a possible new leader and stick with what one is already familiar with and avoid the trouble,” she said.

But it is not to say that she is happy with the for-mer government. There are numerous complaints against their perfor-mance and it will always haunt her. But she will push it back in her mind and learn to live with it

just so that she doesn’t have to go through the ordeal of being surprised by the conduct of a new leader.

Ngawang Dorji, 37 year old private em-ployee strongly rejects change in leadership since, “change will only interfere with the proper functioning of what has already been put in place,” he said.

According to him it is better to keep the Devil one knows than the god one is not familiar with.

change in leadership means changing the country and surprising the people with new sys-tems and experience.

Bhutanese people have become automatic to the current systems and situations, and are just not ready to be jolted by


ant reason such as ‘bad weather’.

Among the senior citizens were also the youths who didn’t mind the rain to feel the expe-rience of being counted and heard.

Anjusubba, a 19 year old who casted her first ballot said, “I feel im-portant and proud,” and was glad that she was of age to be a part of such an important decision.

likewise, other youths, The Journalist talked to said that they were happy and eager to take part in choosing the right party for the benefit of the country and the people.

Ahley polling station saw a very good voter turnout but the polling station at Toribari how-ever saw fewer voters, comparatively.

May 31: 82-year-old Budi maya who braved the heavy downpour to cast her ballot

the effect of change, be it good or bad.

Besides whom better to entrust the country with, than the leaders who al-ready has experience and knows what to make of the country.

Similary, Tashi Zang-mo, a student said that a change in leadership will bring upon the country laws and systems which are unfamiliar. And that she said will distract the people and be confusing in many uncomfortable ways.

So in that regard she is happy that the former two parties are back in the picture.

“I am now waiting on who will be the ruling government to see if Bhu-tanese people really are the creatures of habit,” she says.

With deepest respect, the management of

Ugyen Phendeyling Resort & Meditation Center

join all the citizens in wishingYour Majesty

a very wonderful Birthday.Our prayers for

Your Majesty’s good health, long life and happiness.

Ugyen Phendeyling Resort & Meditation CenterSatsham Chorten, Paro, Bhutan

SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2013

NATION NATION

| Usha Drukpa

Beeeeeppppp” goes the electorate and the first voter, Ap

Passang Wangdi, 83, who served 43 years in govern-ment from south Thim-phu, Babesa, had reached the polling station as ear-ly as 6:30 AM to cast his vote.

He finally voted and exited the peace of poll-ing booth with an over-whelming smile of satis-faction.

He created a friendly environment for the anxious voters who were waiting behind him in the queue.

Ap Wangdi said that the institution of constitu-tional democracy in Bhu-tan is a soelra (gift) from His Majesty the Kings and the people of Bhutan are very lucky to have re-ceived it.

Voting according to him is a must and important for every Bhutanese to take it seriously. He said that, “It is the blessing from the triple gem that I could

come and cast a vote even though I wasn’t well,” He said that his expecta-tion after casting a vote is, whoever wins, he wishes that the party would bring prosperity and strengthen the nation.

Voting is a responsibil-ity and one can never force their family, friends or relatives as to whom to vote, he said. “Vote can-not be compromised,” he added.

Tenzin Pelwang, 79, the first person to vote at the Changangkha polling station, said, “I am really excited for it is our respon-sibility as the citizen to be mindfully involved.”

According to him it de-pends on the people as to what kind of government is produced.

“Our vote will deter-mine our future realiz-ing this and have prayed and voted for a party,” he said. “All he wanted from being the first person at the polling station was to make sure that his vote was counted for the party of my choice and he was

confident that the party that he had chosen will definitely benefit the na-tion.

“This feeling and emo-tions that has overcome in me drove me here at this early hour,” he said. Similarly, Thoepaga N Dawa, a 22 years old gov-ernment employee was another first voter in the scene.

He wanted to be the first one since it is a rare privi-lege which comes only once after five years.

Moreover it is a need for every people to vote given the fact that vote is what decides and shapes the nation’s future.

Similarly Passang, a 42 year old Businessman had waited long enough for the poll day to arrive.

“When it did finally ar-rive I couldn’t control my

“

excitement but to go to the polling station even if it meant waiting,” he said.

Another ‘first to vote’ was 72 year old Ap Dago Tshering, at Chang-bangdru polling station.

He was brimming with excitement for being the first in the line and didn’t mind having to wait for the polling booth to open.

Rather he piped in and commented on the pleas-ant weather which per-fectly complimented his mood.

It was learnt that most people had showed up early since they were ex-cited and concerned as to who will form the new government.

It is indeed mesmeris-ing to see the electorates reach the polling station early even before the poll-ing booth opened.

Each and every citizen of Bhutan who voted had one expectation in com-mon and that was, “My vote will benefit the peo-ple and the nation.”

all the polling sta-tions the Journalist had recorded yes-

terday was met with the pleasant sight of kids ac-companying the parents who had come to cast their ballot.

Kids saw the polling sta-tion yesterday, as a place for exploration while the parent saw their presence as a positive experience and exposure for the kids to understand about the importance to vote.

Among the voters inter-viewed by the Journalist was a 27 year old Tashi Wangdi who was accom-panied by his 10 year old bother.

According to him it is im-portant that as the coun-try moves forward with democracy, the children who would possibly vote in the future be educated and made aware about the importance of making their vote count in every election.

He added that Bhutan re-flects a young demograph-ic profile which shows that there will be increase in the number of eligible vot-ers and would make a very high composition of young voters in future. So bring-ing young people along to the polling place will open a space for them to ob-serve, learn and reflect in some way or another.

Likewise, Tshering Dema said that “when elders have taken time to learn about the system of democracy in Bhutan, the children’s should also be given op-portunity to learn about it without any delay.”

Makings kids to learn by allowing them at the poll station is one among many ways to make them experience, see and learn from the process.

kuenzang Choden who had come to vote with her three kids said that there is an age limitation as to who be able to understand the significance of the day.

Very young ones of only two to three years of age will not understand at this point of time but kids older than seven years old will on the other hand under-stand if they are informed about it.

Young people have the capacity to understand quickly and easily thus it is important to root them with the important of dem-ocratic election from the very start.

She sees no harm in bring the kids to the polling field as it will allow them to observe and understand the process and learn the process passively.

However, 58 year old Do-phu said that it would be difficult for children to un-derstand politics at a very young age.

Moreover the sight of kids lingering around is distracting and makes it difficult for the elders to concentrate on their deci-sion.

Similarly, Pem Zam a teacher at Gedu said that “it would be difficult to make the kids understand about the system of de-mocracy and also about the vote at a very young age”.

It is not advisable to come with a child and be-sides there are many other better ways to make them learn about it. However bringing along a kid who has aged to be only two or three is a different case for it will have no implication on them at all.

The young people shared to the Journalist their ex-citement of being at the poll station.

Jigme Dema, a nine year old felt the need to accom-pany her parents to watch the election process know-ing that in future she will have to do the same. She added that she can watch the proceedings the whole

day as her mother is one of the polling officer in Jigme Losel Primary school poll-ing station.

Similarly Lhap Tshering, a six year old said that he has to come with her mother to the polling sta-tion since there was no one at home to stay back with him.

He is happy to be out play around and feel the excitement and also watch the many people who have gathered.

Tshering Dee Wangmo, a seven year old said that she had seen in the tele-vision on how the people press the button with pip sound. So she wanted to see personally as to how the people press the but-ton.

“I am excited and wait-ing to see my mother push the button,” she exclaimed and besides she had tagged along with her mother also expecting to meet friends of her age who had come along with their parents.

Almost everyone the journalist interviewed agreed that it is in some way a good platform for the young kids to learn in-dicating the importance to expose them to the process as they will be the one to vote in future.

However some were in the view that it would be untimely to make them understand.

| Usha Drukpa, Thimphu:

A RAINBOW around the sun and a very bright weather,” it

was a scene which envis-aged a good fortune. Even the weather favored the election to go well in the country.

The people of the na-tion, with an umbrella over their head greeted each other and gave warm hugs were hereby lined up, to cast their vote for the new government. It is an historical event, sec-ond of its kind. It’s almost like an occasion where the families and relatives get together.

Beautifully dressed, goggled up and a smile on their face with the hope of their party to win. Police officers and the securities were on guard on the way to supervise the gates in polling station for safety and fair election.

8:13AM, Babesa, there were 19 voters, where 8 females and 11 males had already queued up, waiting for the voting to start. Shortly afterwards the crowd increased, add-ing up to the line, more with older people than with the young or middle aged people. Irrespective of their age, the observa-tion however showed how older people were more concerned about the elec-tion and eager for the new government. In fact, all the people of Bhutan were.

The sounds of the ea-ger voters who were in a group was overlapped by the sound of drill made by the laborers of the nearby construction. Senior citi-zens chewing doma and chanting prayers waited in line with a hope that best of best will win to lead the nation to a brighter fu-ture.

The line started get-ting more crowded but the scene was dominated mostly by the male voters than the females.

Some of the voters had

“ come as early as 7 AM in the morning so they can vote early and get back on with their own business.

The voters were anx-ious, eager, and at the same time excited to cast their vote. And more over, the old people were excited to see the cameras focused at them.

It was not only the Bhu-tanese who were excited to witness the big day, even the foreigners were the part of the excitement.

Among them were some media personals of south broadcasting service (SBS), from South Korea, Souel who were enthusiastically covering the event for a documentary.

Similarly, in another polling station, people were eagerly lined up for their turn as the electorate moved inside to cast their vote. The line seemingly became more longer as more voters joined in for the big day.

Even one ignorant vote will have a detrimental impact to the process of democracy and influence the whole nation. But by looking at the voter turn-out in every polling station it conveyed a message that the people have now un-derstood the importance of the process of democracy in the country and has re-alized the need for them to cast their vote.

According to Dorji Lha-mo, 52, at the Changang-kha polling station, the vote is the voice of the peo-ple and it will determine the kind of government they are going to have. She also said that the people are in every way responsi-ble for making the election a success towards electing a government that will work in the interest of the people and the nation as a whole.

She also expressed her happiness on seeing more numbers of people gath-ered to participate unlike the primary election.

Michiyoshi Kiaho from the “land of rising sun’’ enjoys

the grandeur as a renais-sance man after having stolen lime light dating back to the year 1994, where he successfully com-pleted “The Trans-Ameri-can” foot Race from Los Angeles to New York cov-ering almost 7400 kms.

Yet again, in the follow-ing year he set the Thames on fire by triumphing over the same race.

“There are two phases in our human lives. The first one would be that, the contenders’ moves heaven and earth bearing in their minds and feasting their eyes on jack pot. The sec-ond is kicking back on their own lives and appre-ciating the works that they have done,” Said Kaiho.

Kaiho first visited Bhu-tan a year ago sometime in the month of Novem-ber in a quest for a perfect place to jog.

He did out and out re-search in Bhutan and re-alized that he was compli-mented with a favorable climatic condition and not to mention the Bhutanese enthusiasts who egged him on to organize a won-derful promising event. Af-ter spending a month long in Bhutan, he got a green light to move on with his plan.

So, Kaiho through the offices of “Bhutan Friend-ship Committee’’ orga-nized a marathon which he replaces the old cliché with the newly coined buzz word as ‘Maranic’ which in his view was the combi-nation of words ‘marathon and picnic’.

The uniqueness of the event was that there were no prizes for the winners as the team wanted them to realize as to how it feels when they are running for one another.

However as a redeem-ing feature to this unique ‘maranic’, uniforms and refreshments were given to the participants.

Still, one of the runners received ngultrum five thousand as a prize for participation and many

others tried their luck to claim it.

According to Kaiho, ‘‘ The main objectives of the event were not only to in-form how important it is to keep a good health but also to build strong rela-tionship amongst the Jap-anese ,the Bhutanese and people from the rest of the world’’.

Further he also wanted the Bhutanese to realize how privileged they are to be born in Bhutan. He in-formed on how the rest of the world views Bhutan as one of the most beautiful countries to live in owing to its beautiful environs and the form of govern-ment the country had transitioned into recently.

Talking to the Journal-ist he shared his personal experience in Bhutan and how he has mastered him-self from the school of hard knocks.

According to him, “To-day, in this technologically driven world, everything got computerized and digi-talized so, we humans are left with no other options than to resort ourselves to this changing electronic culture.”

The entire phenomenon leads the people into un-guided ways, where obesity is found to be one of them, he added. Now the prob-lem of obesity has become a public enemy number one to both people and it ginormously delimits expenditure on a welfare state, especially in the west and in the Middle Eastern countries.

“So, is it worth to jog whenever we get a spare time?” he asked.

| Jigme Thugten

| Dawa Norbu














HHoME

































TANG constituency.










7Sunday, June 2, 2013 THE JOURNALISTTHE JOURNALIST

advErt6 Sunday, June 2, 2013

On this marvelous moment of the

Birth Anniversary of Your Majesty,

the management and staff of

Bhutan Happy Land Tours and Travels

extend their fondest wishes and prayers for the

long life of Your Majesty.

Bhutan Happy Land Tours and TravelsThimphu, Bhutan. C: 17724616

Technical Training Institute ChumeyBumthang

On the beautiful occasion of the Birth Anniversary of Her Majesty The Gyaltsuen, Jetsun Pema Wangchuck,

the management, staff and trainees of Technical Training Institute Chumey extend our

heartfelt felicitations and prayers for Your Majesty’s long life, good health and happiness.

On the joyous and auspicious occasion of the 23rd Birth Anniversary of Her Majesty the Gyaltsuen Jetsun

Pema Wangchuck, the Rabdey, Civil Servants, Business Community and the People re- dedicated our commitment to

serve our country with utmost loyalty and sincerity. Haa Dzongkhag would like to offer our tribute and profound

prayers for Her Majesty’s good health and long life.Tashi Delek

Haa Dzongkhag

In commemoration of The Birth Anniversary of Her Majesty Gyaltsuen Jetsun Pema,

the management and staff of Bhutan Polythene Co. Ltd., Phuentsholing extend our fondest wishes for Your Majesty’s

long life with continued peace and prosperity within the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Bhutan Polythene Company LimitedAN ISO - 9001 : 2008 CERTIFIED COMPANY

Staying voiceless on Election Day| Ugyen Wangmo

As the nation went to polls on May 31 to be counted,

there were few citizens who were left voiceless to accept whatever leadership other chooses for them.

Despite its small voter base, the nation still saw a significant number of people who remained silent on the poll day for various reasons.

“Give me some one I can trust my future on and I will vote again,” said Pema Tashi, 36, a corporate employee.

he said that he had vot-ed in 2008, but over the past five years under the first elected government he has learned about how politicians can lie and mislead the public.

“I cannot waste my vote and time for some-one who lies for their own personal gain,” he affirmed.

It will take him an oc-currence of at least one government which truly represents the people to be able to bring back his trust and confidence to vote again.

on the other hand, choki Dorji, 53, a civil servant said that there is going to be an election whether one likes it or not, and one of the can-didates is going to win whether they like them or not.

he said “right to vote is my democracy and politicians are my lifeline who will decide the future of my country,” so he took the responsibility to go out and vote.

likewise, Ngawang Yonten, a 31 year old graduate said, “I am not fine with the way things

are and I will not leave the important decisions up to others.”

According to him, to vote is not just a right but it is a democratic obliga-tion, “to live in a country where you have a say in how you are governed.”

Besides, to decide to not to vote is a betrayal to the nations ‘past, present and future generations’.

And Bhutan will be able to achieve a govern-ment that represents all the people only if every-one were to vote.

But, Kezang choden, 37 year old resident in phuentsholing is one of those who were compelled to stay home on poll day.

“I am registered to vote in Mongar and I would have liked to cast my bal-lot,” she said. however she was not able to ar-range the trip because of the cost of travelling.

her entire family is sad that they could not take part in deciding for their own future, but they are still hopeful that they might be able to make it for the general election.

Similarly, ugyen Zang-mo, 44, who had regis-tered for postal ballot will have to remain voiceless as her postal ballot has been rejected. She said that her constituency is about four days travel from Thimphu and it was

simply not possible to go and vote in the polling station.

Despite her strong desire to vote, she is con-demned to remain silent because of the gauntlet of obstacles to voting.

“I could not go to vote because there was no at home to look after the cows,” said Daza Ama, 47 year old farmer from Pemagatshel.

But she will definitely fulfill her civic duty by making it for the general round though. She ex-plained that her children will be home from school to give her some flexibili-ty from the daily working schedule.

Similarly, Phuntsho wangdi and his entire family could not stop their work in the farm to go and vote. he reasoned that they were scheduled for the obligatory labour to their kinsmen on the poll day, which is a la-bour exchange tradition practiced in his village.

A 65-year-old man from Phuentsholing said that he is not interested in politics. “Politicians makes hundreds of prom-ises during the campaign and does not fulfil any after they are elected,” he said.

Further, once in power all the politicians are the same and deny knowing them even if they are from the same constituency.

“he is a lie and my vote is futile,” he declared as the reason for not cast-ing his ballot.

Sonam choden, Thim-phu resident registered in Khaling -Womrong con-stituency in Tashigang said that she didn’t vote be-cause being a private em-ployee she didn’t have the privilege of postal ballot.

And to go to the poll-ing station means the worry of having to travel for three days to get there and another three days to come back.

In addition the ex-penses and the trouble of paper works for leave from office, is just not the trouble she can afford to go through.

Sadly for lhendup Zangmo, 44, whose poll-ing station was in Nam-seling, Thimphu could not make it owing to the bad weather. She feels guilty for not voting but yet, “As part of democ-racy, we should feel free to not vote as well,” she says.

HHoME


















Haa Dzongkhag




































HHoME

JULY 14, 2013 SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2013

HOME NATION

| Jigme Thugten, Thimphu:

AN ELEVEN DAY Youth Engagement Programme held

at Youth Harmony Village ended successfully on July 11.

The various programmes organized were, reading, arts and crafts, knitting and crochet, photography, cre-ative scraps, exercise club, movie screening, swim-ming, Table tennis, guitar lesson, dance coaching and B-boy coaching.

“The main objective behind organizing such an event is to educate the young Bhutanese on Gross National Happiness and to allow them to spend their summer vacation more meaningfully,” said Rikku, the organizer.

He said that there were about 12 different pro-grammes with more than three hundred children in-volved. The participants were advised on how to ef-fectively replicate and im-plement the lessons learnt during the event into their daily lives.

“I never expected that the young Bhutanese would be

as talented as they have proved to be and that too at such an early age,” said Dorjee Om Dorji, one of the volunteers.

She said they have also shared many ideas with one another during the programme. “It would be always profitable and worthwhile for the young-er generation if the gov-ernment could continue to initiate such event even in future,” she suggested.

The participants had made many items which were displayed for sale with prices ranging around few hundreds and the most expensive ones being priced around ngul-trum seven hundred.

The money generated from sales will be saved to organize the same event in the following year.

The program was man-aged and organized by the Department of Youth and Sports along with a group of young volunteers, com-ing from all walks of life. The event was funded by the UNICEF and was also organized in four other dzongkhags of the coun-try.

BHUTAN MEDIA SERVICESTshering Sonam Building, Opposite to old Bank of Bhutan, Norzin Lam, Thimphu, Bhutan.Phone : +975.2.327540 Cell: 17605014 Email : [email protected] [email protected] Web : www.bms.bt

Buy your copy today!

BMSBHUTAN MEDIA SERVICES

We Manufacture, Repair and Supply High Quality Steel Alimarahs, Racks,

Lockers, Drawers, Chairs and Furniture

Jangchub Furniture UnitJangchub Furniture UnitMANUFACTURERS & REPAIRING OF FABRIC SOFA & STEEL FURNITURE

NORGAY CINEMA HALL COMPOUND, PHUENTSHOLING, BHUTANMobile : 77354163 s Email: [email protected]

PURE

with Guarantee

Reputed name for

ORNAMENTS

andChoechaSilver

DiamondsPrecious Stones

Bhutan Jewellery & GemsModern and Fancy Ornaments l Gold & Silver Manufacturer and Order Suppliers

All Kinds of Bhutanese ornaments, Religious items manufacturerNear Bhutan Exit Gate, H.M.D. Road, Jaigaon. Cell : 16936030. Contact : Gauri Soni

KhomaDorji

DopchuZuki

SinchuChain

LocketsWedding,

Engagement & Lucky

RingsEar ringsBraceletsNecklacesNose ringsAltar items

BanglesNose studsand many

more...

འབྲུག་གི་རྒྱན་ཆ་དང་ནོར་བུའི་ཚོང་ཁང་།

Premium, Long Lasting, Eco-Friendly, Large Variety of Luxury Furnitures for your Home and Office

Woodcon

True Quality, True Value

Fabric, Steel, Leather and Wooden Sofa Sets

Bedroom SetsBedsides & Dresser UnitsRacks, Stands & CornersComputer & Study TablesTV, Wall Units & WardrobesDining Table SetsOffice Desks, Tables & ChairsWorkstations

(A HOUSE OF EXCLUSIVE BRANDED FURNITURE, SERVING BHUTAN FOR OVER 10 YEARS)N. S. ROAD, JAIGAON, INDIA. ( +91-3566-264065 B.Mobile : 17601101

Email : [email protected] l [email protected]

Youth Engagement Program:

Pepcity wins Futsal

A 12 DAY long Futsal tournament held at Changlimith-

ang commenced on 12 July with Pepcity walking away with the first prize of Ngultrum 12,000 and team Changs Staallion as runners up with Ngultrum 8,000.

Tshering Tobgay from the team Changs Stallion had scored the first goal after five minutes of the game. The second half of the game saw Pepcity leading the game with three goals to one.

“I run, sweat and say no to drugs’’, was the theme of the tournament. “The Nazhoen – Pelri- Drop In Centre (DIC) will be orga-nizing the DIC – Recov-ery Cup every year,” said Jigme Wangchuk, one of the organizers of the event.

He explained that 160 youths had participated and most of them were school students. Some of the participants were past drug addicts and a few of them were still recover-ing.

“The tournament has helped all the participants to use their time effective-ly and was beneficial es-pecially to those who were previously into drugs,” said Jigme, “as this has taught them on how to lead their lives without us-ing drugs and alcohol.”

According to him, the main objective for orga-nizing such a tournament was to create awareness and to educate the society to stop stigmatizing the drug and alcohol abusers and instead, opt for com-bating against addiction and not the addicts. At the same time they also wanted the drug users to feel proud to stand in the crowd as a sober and clean human. “Clothes do not make the men’’, he said, “So, let’s start combating against addiction and not the addicts, shall we?”

The event was orga-nized by the Bhutan Foot-ball Association the Bhu-tan Olympic Committee and the Youth Develop-ment Fund. A total of 16 teams had participated.

| Ugyen Wangmo

YESTERDAY, it all came down to the nation. More than

half a population of the country headed to the polls to make their voices heard in this, the world’s youngest democracy.

The lines were long and the process took hours from the daily routines but there was something about voting for the fu-ture that gave everyone a feeling like none other.

Pat ience was needed, with those m a n n i n g the polls and those in line around them. But af-ter the fateful day nation is finally free of the end-less allegations and coun-ter allegation and drama packed campaign that had overwhelmed the na-tion for months.

“’Election 2013’ is bound to go down in the history as one of the most interesting and memo-rable election Bhutan will ever see,” said Tsher-ing Wangdi, from South Thimphu constituency.

Even though it is just the second term, “this is already the most polariz-ing election yet, and of all the future elections that are to come,” he said.

He however asserted that for each people the view of the choices they face is through the lenses of their own experience.

He observed that the second term of politics turned out to be personal and created division not just between political par-ties, but among friends, between neighbors and within families.

Perhaps the one thing they can all agree on is that the campaign season is finally over and after a long last Bhutan will wake up to the calm of

new government.An interesting obser-

vation made on poll day was a young boy in queue asking his mother “does this means I will get to watch my favorite pro-grams again without BBS hogging the Showtime?”

“Yes Tashi, you can watch your show. We will not turn on the BBS unless it is for the news,” said his mother comfortingly.

People went to the poll-ing station k n o w i n g how they were go-ing to vote for whom and why. And finally the nation came to-gether as one and

voted with hope.They hoped that the

best one be the winner, even though the outcome will likely make half the nation happy and rest de-pressed.

They hoped that that every citizen made an ef-fort to vote and make a difference. They hoped that the nation was fully prepped to welcome the new government with grace support them.

They hoped that they had made the right choice when they pushed the de-terminant button.

People hoped that the ruling government will keep their promises and deliver the pledges that had won their hearts and vote.

They hoped that dur-ing their term the elected government will not give them a reason to doubt their judgment and deci-sions made.

“Let’s hope that the result will bring us back together as Bhutanese, grateful to live in this unique country,” said the electorate.

’Election 2013’ is bound

to go down in the

history as one of the

most interesting and

memorable election

Bhutan will ever see

| Jigme Thugten

AS THE NATION went to polls yes-terday, the milieu

of the country was identi-cal to that of a city on a curfew leaving the public in the lurch.

During the rest of days, everything in Thimphu happens in New York minute but yesterday all the shops were closed, streets were deserted ex-pect for few cars commut-ing to get to the polling stations.

The pedestrians were found feasting their eyes trying to get an emer-gency service on a desired time but only to be disap-pointed with what met their eyes.

Bhutan should be cele-brating the day since such an occasion demands for festivity in itself, but it was otherwise, forlorn and ominous.

The only pedestrians to

be seen on the street were those few under-aged youth and some tour-ists who were seen going up the hill and down the dale.

“Back there in Aus-tralia, during the voting day everything remains quite the same but here in Bhutan the voting day appears to be very special that the people are hardly to be seen,” said James Cameeron, a volunteer in Bhutan.

“We feel that this very matter should be taken into an account by who-ever wins the election because now after being an voting intellect for the past six years , we have come down to the con-clusion that we are left in the lurch during the poll day,” said Sonam, one of the hoteliers in the city.

“My step mom got sick this morning but as I was trying to get medicine for her I was met only with

the disappointing closed doors,” said Sonam Dorji sadly.

He could not get the medicine since none of the drug stores were open. “SO, my two cent’s opin-ion would be that , from now on, during such kind of important days and especially in future elec-tions all the shops should remain open as we may not know what is going to happen to us’’, he added.

“Did the Government of Bhutan ever think of how difficult it is to stay without having the very basic amenities at their finger tips, when need-ed the most? Could the upcoming government be able to get rid of this vague idea or is it going to remain the same in 2018’s election?” ques-tioned a distraught citi-zen. “A desperate time calls for desperate mea-sures,” he said.

| Usha Drukpa and Karma Dema and Pema Denkar

AS THE PEOPLE were waiting with excitement near

the television to know the result of the second par-liamentary election, some were surprised with the result as well.

The Day of Judgment has come to an end with unequivocal result; Peo-ples Democratic Party (PDP) won the election by 32 against 15 seats by

Druk Phunsum Tshokpa in the parliament.

After unofficial result of the election, the reac-tions of the voters were evidence that the measur-able pledges that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) proposed had spurred the voters.

Ap Dorji Wanchuck, 45 years, a farmer said that he’s neither happy nor sad. He added since PDP has won the election and will be governing the na-tion for the next five years,

“I think they would bring changes in the country.” The people and the na-tion would definitely lead to a brighter future, if the promises made by the PDP get fulfilled, he added fur-ther. He said, “If the new government elected could look into the problems such as water supply and the repair of the roads in Toebesa people would be very grateful.”

According to Karma Wangchuk, a 56 year old

» continued on p 11

NEW

& updated

Profile of

Gups & Gewogsof Bhutan

205

Official & Personal •contact information of all Gups, GAO & Mangmi

Gewog •Demographics like population, roads, education, climate, health, Projects, etc.

Local Gewog •Tourism Info

Sacred Places of •every Gewog

Gewog Maps•

Agriculture & •Commercial Info

Development Plans•

Gup & Gewog •Photographs and more ...

information














HHoME

































TANG constituency.










སྤྱི་ཟླ་ ༧ པའི་ ༡༤རང་ཟླ་ ༦ པའི་ཚེས་ ༦














HHoME

































TANG constituency.










ཐོན་རིམ་ ༤ པའི་ ༣ པ

༉ དེ་ཡང་ བསྐལ་པ་དཔག་ཏུ་མེན་པའི་ ཧེ་མ་ སངས་རྒྱས་མར་མེ་མཛད་ཀྱི་ བསྟན་པ་ལུ་ སངས་རྒྱས་མི་འཁྲུགས་པའི་རྣམ་སྤྲུལ་ གླིང་གཞི་ལུ་ འཁོར་ལོ་བསྒྱུར་བའི་ རྒྱལཔོ་ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྲུང་ལུ་ བཙུན་མོ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ ༡ དང ༢ ཡོད་པའི་ནང་ལས་ ཁྱད་པར་དུ་འཕགས་པའི་བཙུན་མོ་ དཔེ་མེན་མ་ལས་ སྲས་མ་འཁྲུངས་པར་ བཙུནམོ་ཐུགས་དོགས་ཏེ་ ཁྲུས་དང་གཙང་སྦྲ་བསྟན་ཏེ་ རྒྱན་ཆ་སྣ་ཚོགས་བཏགས་ཞིནམ་ལས་ དཀོན་མཆོག་ལུ་ གསོལཝ་བཏབ་པཞི་ཉིན་མར་ རྒྱལཔོ་དང་བཙུནམོ་ཆ་མཉམ་ ཙན་དན་གྱི་ནགས་ཚལ་ པད་མའི་གླིང་ལུ་ ཁམས་བསང་བྱོནམ་ད་ བཙུནམོ་

པད་མའི་ཕྱག་ལུ་ མེ་ཏོག་ཅིག་རང་བྱུང་དུ་བྱོན་ཏེ་ ཁ་ཕྱེ་ལྟཝ་ད་ མེ་ཏོག་དེ་ནང་ལས་ ཨ་ལོ་འཇའ་རིསམོ་ཅིག་ཐོནམ་ལས་ མཚན་ཡང་ ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེམས་དཔའ་ཟེར་བཏགས་གནང་ནུག།དེ་ལས་ ཕོ་སྐྱེས་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ ༡ གི་མིང་བྲིས་ཏེ་ རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་བུམ་པའི་ནང་ བཙུགས་ཞིནམ་ལས་ ཞག་ ༧ གྱི་རིང་ལུ་ མཆོད་པ་དང་ ཁྲིས་གསོལ་ཕུལ་ཏེ་ བུམ་པའི་ནང་ལས་མིང་རེ་རེ་བཞིན་དུ་བཏོན་ཏེ་ ཕོ་སྐྱེས་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ ༡ པ་ཆ་མཉམ་ སངས་རྒྱས་ནི་གི་ལུང་བསྟན་ཐོབ་པའི་སྐབས་ལུ་ ནུ་གཅུང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེམས་དཔའ་ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་གིས་ ཕོ་རྒནམ་ཚུ་སངས་རྒྱས་

དཔལ་ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་མདོར་ཙམ་ཞུ་བ།

༉ སྤ་རོ་རྫོང་ཁག་ རྡོ་སྒར་རྒེད་འོག་གི་ མི་སེར་ཚུ་ ཆརཔ་དུས་ཚོད་ཁར་ མ་རྐྱབ་མི་ལུ་བརྟེན་ སེམས་ཁར་ཚ་གྱང་སྦོམ་ལངས་ཏེ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས། དེ་ཡང་ ད་རེས་ནངས་པ་ རྒེད་འོག་དེ་ནང་ ཨེ་མ་གི་ ས་ཁར་བཙུགས་ནིའི་ དུས་ཚོད་ཨིནམ་རུང་ ཆརཔ་མེད་མི་ལུ་བརྟེན་ ཨེ་མ་བཙུགས་ནིའི་ དུས་ཚོད་ཕར་ཕུད་ རྐྱབ་དགོཔ་ཐོན་ཡོདཔ་ལས་ དུས་ཅི་ རྒེད་འོག་དེ་ནང་ ཨེ་མའི་འཐོན་ཤུགས་མལང་དོ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།མ་གཞི་ རྒེད་འོག་དེ་ཁར་ བྱཱ་འཚོ་ནིའི་ཡོད་འབབ་ཡོད་རུང་ ཞིང་ཆུའི་དཀའ་ངལ་ཡོདཔ་ལས་ མི་སེར་ཚུ་ འཚོ་བ་གཙོ་བོ་ཨེ་མ་དང་ གཞན་ཚོད་བསྲེ་ཀྱི་ རིགས་འཛུགས་སྐྱོང་འཐབ་སྟེ་ རང་མགོ་རང་འདྲོངས་སྦེ་ སྡོད་མི་ཅིག་ཨིནམ་ལས་ དུས་ཚོད་འ་ནེམ་ཅིག་ཁར་ ཆརཔ་མ་རྐྱབ་པ་ཅིན་ དུས་ཅི་ ཁོང་གི་

འཐོན་ཁུངས་ལུ་ ཐོ་སྦོམ་སྦེ་རང་ ཕོག་ནི་མས་ཟེར་ ཚ་གྱང་ལང་དོ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས། རྒེད་འོག་དེ་ཁར་ལས་ ཨཔ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གིས་ སླབ་མི་ནང་ ད་རེས་ནངས་པ་ དུས་ཚོད་འ་ནེམ་ཅིག་ཁར་ ཆརཔ་རྐྱབ་པའི་དུས་ཚོད་ཨིན་རུང་ ཁོང་གི་གཡུས་ཁར་ ཆརཔ་མ་རྐྱབ་མི་དེ་ གནད་དོན་ག་ཅི་ཨིན་ན་ ལེགས་ཤོམ་ཅིག་ ཧ་གོ་མ་ཚུགས་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།ཨིན་རུང་ ད་རེས་ནངས་པ་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་ ས་གནས་མང་ཤོས་ཅིག་ནང་ ཆརཔ་ཤུགས་སྦེ་ རྐྱབ་ཏེ་ ས་རུད་དང་ཆུ་རུག་ཀྱི་གཞུང་ལམ་ ཁག་མང་རབས་ཅིག་ མེདཔ་བཏང་ཡོདཔ་མ་ཚད་ འཐུང་ཆུ་དང་ ཞིང་ཆུ་ཚུ་ཡང་ མེདཔ་བཏང་སྟེ་ ཚོགས་རྒྱན་སྐྱུར་བ་འགྱོ་མི་ཚུ་ལུ་ དཀའ་ངལ་སྦོམ་བྱུང་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།

ཆར་ཆུ་མེད་པའི་དཀའ་ངལ།














HHoME

































TANG constituency.



























Haa Dzongkhag




































HHoME

JULY 14, 20138

HOME

| Dechen Dolkar & Dawa Norbu

IN THE CLOSING of sum-mer youth program on July 11, students who

had worked to identify the concerns faced by various communities presented with their findings.

Changidaphu, Chang-zamtog, Changjiji, Hong-kong Market and lower Motithang were the com-munities identified for the students to study and un-derstand the concerns and problems of those commu-nities.

The presentation of their findings mainly highlight-ed on the problems of the communities in Thimphu, through various method-ologies such as interview, survey, photographing and audio recording.

Through such exem-plary initiative, students even assisted to put in place solutions to address the problems identified by talking with the concerned authorities.

Presenters designated to explore Changidaphu said that the people in the com-munity were cooperative; the roads that directed towards the community were satisfying and it had enough private education facilities.

But it however lacked city bus services, minimal access to local government services and above all in-securities in the commu-nity were seen as few of the constrains in the com-munity.

It was informed that they had already put up the problems to the author-ities. In response to their proposal, the Bhutan post has agreed to provide city bus service if the people of Changgidaphu come with the proposal.

Similarly, Bhutan Olym-pic Committee also assured to provide them with sport facilities provided there is availability of free space.

The main findings re-corded by the students designated for Changzam-tok pointed out the Water Shortage as one major problem besides the waste

Exemplary youth initiative:

management and drain-age woes.

In addition lack of rec-reational, spiritual and youth engagement fa-cilities were also seen as a problem in Changzamtok community according to their findings.

The community also cannot access to the lo-cal government due to the limited awareness on the availability of the services from the Thromdhe.

Based on the findings they also managed to come up with the solution with the help of Druk Nor-zin Hygiene Association.

Druk Norzin Hygiene Association is an associa-tion that not only promotes hygiene, cleans buildings and drains in the commu-nity but also creates em-ployment opportunities. In the process the group also helped two people to get employed with the as-sociation.

Similarly, the Changjiji presenters brought to no-tice that Changjiji should be converted into a com-munity which is from alcoholics. In addition like other community the Changjiji community also faces the water shortage problem and lack of facili-ties for youths who are out of school.

It was found out that even though the commu-nity has non-government organizations like people’s project and youth office but the lack of collabora-tion with each other was identified as a problem.

The solution they came up with was to organize stakeholders to create op-portunities and provide platform for the youths. They suggested taking community radio forward in collaboration with READ Centre and Kazoo FM and resolve the alcohol problem in the changjiji community.

Interestingly, the youth allocated to study the Hong Kong market community had an entirely different finding.

It was understood to be the place where most

youth crimes happened with abundance of bars, clubs, drayangs and snook-er play rooms.

Apart from these find-ings, limited parking space was also found to be a problem but however on the positive part it was seen as the center for vari-ous businesses.

As a solution to the in-dentified problems they agreed to plan strategies and build relationship be-tween the police and pub-lic by initiating the forma-tion of “community watch group.”

They also disclosed the organizations that helped the community and sug-gested to utilize the unused land as parking area.

When it came to the low-er Motithang group, unlike other communities Mo-tithang was found to have all the facilities that the community would need. For example Motithang had all the basic facilities starting from a gas station, banking services, fire bri-gade and a good park.

Still, like in other com-munities Motithang was also not free from concerns of increasing number of bars. It was identified as the reason for increase in crime rate especially bur-glary and littering of the places.

The solution they pro-posed was to facilitate Dustbin and make it avail-able after every certain reasonable distance.

Dasho Thrompon of Thimphu thromdhe ex-tended his appreciation to the all the youth for mean-ing fully engaging in such contribution to the society during their summer va-cation and setting a good example to inspire many youth that would follow.

He also shared his con-cern that the increase in the number of bars in Thimphu has given rise to many youth related prob-lems. Further the bar own-ers does not seem to follow the rules on the ‘bar timing’ and the ‘age limit’. He said that it is a serious concern which needs to be looked into and assured that they will works towards better integration of rules with the owners which he said would ease the problem.

All the 21 students who had contributed to the bet-terment of the community were offered a certificate of appreciation, in conclu-sion to the righteous role by the youths.

| Karma Dema

AS THE NATION went to polls yesterday there were few who

could not push the button because they were too con-fused to decide owing to the prior dissonance between the parties.

Considerable number of electorate stayed silent on poll day for one reason or another thus trusting unto others the power to decide for their future.

“I could not decide as to who would be a better repre-sentative for the country, so I didn’t vote,” said Kuenzng Wangdi, 60 year old private employee.

It was explained that even though he had always fulfilled his civic responsibil-ity of voting ever since the inception of democracy in Bhutan, however he could not vote this time around because of the excessive drama that had occurred over the past few days.

Immoral conduct of campaign by the politi-cians made me realize that politics in Bhutan is no dif-ferent from the rest of the world which is generally consumed by self intent. Be-sides the campaign period was mostly characterized by allegation and counter alle-gations.

He added that party can-didates did not focus on giv-ing the people with truthful and a feasible pledges but they lied and made prom-ises which were not possible to fulfill. “So whom do I choose?” he asked.

Nima Wangchuk, 44, a businessman said that he had voted in 2008 but this time after watching the common forums and de-bates of both the parties he was confused as to who should be the right party.

He said that it is quit sad that the parties have done nothing but only confound the people and give a wrong impression to the people. “I don’t know about the rest but as far as I am concerned I am voting for neither par-ty,” he said.

“I have lost faith in de-mocracy so ‘No Vote’ from me,” said Tashi Wangmo, 36 year old from Thimphu. The election season accord-ing to her has created a con-siderable amount of parti-san among the people not

to mention sensitive issues snowballed to politicization.

“It was rather unbecom-ing of a future leader to be caught up in the shenani-gans that we know of,” she said. So she ruled against the decision to vote and be dragged down along with them.

Namgay, a student study-ing in India said that at first he was excited to find out that he would be home on time to vote in the general round of election as he had missed his chance during the primary round.

But sadly on reaching here he was disappointed to witness the approach adopt-ed by the party candidates. From common forum and debates he learnt that both the parties made too many pledges that were beyond possible to fulfill.

Moreover both the parties went into attacking each other on their faults not sparing even the indo- Bhu-tan relations as an issue of discussion in the domestic politics.

Politicizing such exter-nal affairs according to him might affect the students studying in India.

“They are fighting to get the names and fames with-out even giving so much as a second thought to what impact it will have on us,” and as a result, “I have lost the interest to vote,” he said dejectedly.

On the other hand there were few electorates who were compelled to forego their right and responsibil-ity because of some other reasons.

Thinley Zangmo, a house wife in Thimphu said that she could not go to vote be-cause she has kids who are very young and felt it would be inappropriate and incon-venient to taken to the poll-ing station.

And similarly, Kinley Tshering, a student studying in India is a registered voter in Pema gatshel.

He said that he had want-ed to vote and help decide for the right party to rule the government. But unfor-tunately he had to leave his home early before the poll day as he was scheduled to leave for his school the fol-lowing day.

Likewise Agay Lhabchu, a senior citizen registered to

» continued on p 10

པའི་བསྟན་པ་ལུ་ ང་གིས་གནོད་པ་བསྲུང་བར་ཤོག་ཅིག་ཟེར་ སྨོན་ལམ་བཏབ་དོ་བཟུམ་སྦེ་ ཕོ་རྒནམ་ སྟོང་ཕྲག་ ༡ རེ་རེའི་བསྟན་པ་ལུ་ ཧེ་མའི་སྨོན་ལམ་དང་འཁྲིལ་ཏེ་ ཉེ་བའི་ཤྲཤ་ཆེན་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་ཚུལ་བཟུང་སྟེ་ མཐུ་སྟོབས་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་ དཔལ་ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་རེ་རེ་བྱོན་ནི་ཨིནམ་བཞིན་དུ་ ད་ལྟོ་ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པའི་བསྟན་པ་ལུ་ཡང་ ཉེ་བའི་སྲས་ཆེན་གྱི་ཚུལ་བཟུང་སྟེ་ བྱོན་མི་དེ་ཡང་ ཧེ་མའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་སྟོབས་ལས་བྱོན་བྱོནམ་ཨིན་པའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་འདུག་གོ།

ང་བཅས་ཆ་ཁྱབ་ཀྱིས་ ད་ལྟོ་ དལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་ མི་ལུ་རིང་པོ་ཆེ་ཐོབ་པའི་ ནམ་དུས་ལས་རང་ སེམས་ཅན་ལུ་གནོད་པའི་འཚེ་བ་སྤང་ཏེ་ དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེད་པ་ དཔལ་ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལུ་ གསོལ་བ་གང་དྲག་བཏབ་ཏེ་ སྐྱབས་དང་མགོན་འཚོལ་བ་ཅིན་ ཚེ་ད་ལྟོ་གིས་ བར་ཆད་བསལ་ ཚེ་ཕྱི་མ་ཐར་པ་དང་ ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པའི་ གོ་འཕང་འཐོབ་ཚུགས་པའི་ ནུས་པ་ རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོར་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་ནོ།


ADVERTS


Bhutan Power Corporation Limited

Procurement Services Department, Thimphu21/BPC/PSD/NIQ/671

NOTICE INVITING BIDSThe Procurement Services Department (PSD), Bhutan Power Corporation Limited (BPC), Thimphu, would like to invite sealed bids for the following:

1. Tender No. BPC/PSD/B22/2013/08 dated 5th July, 2013

2. Description of Lots and Lot No.

Lot 1 Steel Tubular Poles Lot 8 TransformersLot 2 ACSR Conductors Lot 9 Transformer/Governor OilLot 3A Pole Fittings Lot 10 Electrical Line Materials Lot 3B Hardware Fittings Lot 11 InsulatorsLot 3C Distribution Boxes & Mini Pillars Lot 12 Earthing EquipmentsLot 4A XLPE Cables Lot 13 Switch GearLot 4B PVC Cables Lot 14 LT Static Energy MetersLot 4C Cable Jointing Kits Lot 15 CT RingLot 4D Cable Glands Lot 16 CT & PT Lot 5A HV & LV ABC Conductors Lot 17 Unitized SubstationLot 5B ABC Fittings Lot 18 RMUsLot 6 Lightning Arrestor Lot 19 VCB PanelsLot 7 Switching Equipments3. Bid Details:

Cost of documenta)

Date of Saleb)

Place of sale c)

Nu. 5,000.00 (Non-refundable)July 8, 2013 to August 14, 2013Procurement Services Department, BPC, Thimphu(Telephone no. 02-326289)

The detail invitation and the soft copy of the bidding document is available at http://www.bpc.bt/archives/category/tender. The bidder who have downloaded the bid document and wish to participate should register with PSD, BPC, Thimphu on or before the closing of bid sale date and make payment for the cost of the bid documents.

(General Manager)

Royal Bhutan ArmyHeadquarters, Lungtenphu

ThimphuNIQ No. 103/KA/2013/81

Open Tender Notice for Pur-chase of Tractor and Backhoe

Headquarters, Royal Bhutan Army Lungtenphu 1. invites sealed quotation rate for purchase of the following machineries.

Tractor- 40 HP with Hydraulic self un-(a) loading trolley - 01 No

Backhoe- Indian Make (b) (Approx – 90HP) - 01 No

The tender documents may please be 2. obtained from the Office of the Presiding Officer, Tender Committee, Lungtenphu during office hours on payment of Nu. 500.00 Only (non- refundable) to Department of Defence Accounts, Army Headquarters, Lungtenphu from 10 July, 2013 onward till 1200hrs on 07 August, 2013.

The last date for submission is at 3. 1100 hrs on 08 August, 2013 and shall be opened on same day at 1130 hrs in the presence of bidders who wish to attend. For clarification contact # 17381671/ 17111067.

The decision of the Tender Committee will be 4. final and binding.

Presiding Officer

Ministry of Works and Human SettlementsThimphu Thromde

Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Multi-donor Trust FundThimphu Strategic Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Plan and

Implementation of Priority ActionsRef.: TT/ENG/CMS-GEN(01)/12-13/ Bid No. TT/ENG/CMS/2013/23

Invitations for Bids (IFB)National Competitive Bidding

The Government of Bhutan has received a grant fund from the International Development Association towards the cost of 1. Thimphu Strategic Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Plan and Implementation of Priority Actions and intends to apply a part of the funds to cover eligible payments under the contracts for construction of work as detailed below. Bidding is open to all bidders from eligible source countries as defined in the IBRD Guidelines for Procurement. Bidders from Bhutan should, however, be registered with the Royal Government of Bhutan. Bidders are advised to note the minimum qualification criteria specified in Clause 4 of the Instructions to Bidders to qualify for the award of the contract.

The Executive Secretary, Thimphu Thromde invites bids for the construction of works detailed in the table. The bidders may 2. submit bids for the following work.

Bidding documents (and additional copies) may be purchased from the office of the Executive Secretary, Thimphu Thromde 3. upon payment of a non- refundable fee of Nu. 500 from 11/07/2013 to 11/08/2013 between 9.00 hours to 16.00 hours on any working day in the form of cash or Demand Draft on any Scheduled bank payable at Bhutan in favour of the Executive Secretary, Thimphu Thromde. Interested bidders may obtain further information at the same address. Bidding documents requested by mail will be dispatched by registered/ speed post on payment of an extra amount of Nu. 500. The Executive Secretary, Thimphu Thromde will not be held responsible for the postal delay if any, in the delivery of the documents or non-receipt of the same.

Bids must be accompanied by security of the amount specified for the work in the table below, drawn in favour of the Executive 4. Secretary, Thimphu Thromde. Bid security will have to be in any one of the forms as specified in the bidding document and shall have to be valid for 45 days beyond the validity of the bid.

Bids must be delivered to the Executive Secretary, Thimphu Thromde on or before 5. 13.00 hours on 12/08/2013 and will be opened on the same day at 1400 hours, in the presence of the bidders who wish to attend. If the office happens to be closed on the date of receipt of the bids as specified, the bids will be received and opened on the next working day at the same time and venue.

A pre-bid meeting will be held on 6. 24/07/2013 at 10:00hrs at the office of the Executive Secretary, Thimphu Thromde to clarify the issues and to answer questions on any matter that may be raised at that stage as stated in Clause 9.2 of ‘Instructions to Bidders’ of the bidding document.

Other details can be seen in the bidding documents.7.

Component No Name of workApproximate value of work

(Nu.)Bid security

(Nu.)Cost of bid documents

(Nu.)Period of

completion

1 Improvements at Changangkha Lhakhang

8.456 millions 169,000 500 8 months

Executive Secretary

vote in Punakha but currently re-siding in Thimphu explained his old age as a reason for not vot-ing.

Old age has made it difficult for him to journey without suf-fering from travel sickness so he chose to stay back.

He however regrets for her daughter not being able go and vote since she had to stay back and look after him.

But “I know that both the par-ties are capable to rule the gov-ernment and whoever wins will do the nation well,” he said.

» continued from p 8

HOME

| Karma Dema

THE CITIZENS of Bhutan do take the election as a serious

matter and they choose to vote intelligently.

This time 66.07% of the eligible population voted, indicating that the people do understand the im-portance of their votes in electing the right leader to govern the country.

According to Lyonpo Dago Tshering, “If we the citizen of Bhutan didn’t vote intelligently than

there might be lot of im-plications that might end up with regret. More over if they have voted for the party that they are supporting, they will be happy which also goes to show that they have understood the party and their manifestos.”

He further added that as people cast their votes for the party of their choice, it is clear that this particular party is capable of ushering the nation to the greater developmen-tal path and capable of

governing with peace and prosperity. The voter would have also considered par-ty’s manifestos, candidates and leader in confidence to head the government.

Thoepaga N Dawa, a 22 years old of government employee said that he waited for the poll day and had decided to choose the capable party to rule the government. “If we vote the wrong person, ulti-mately the people of Bhu-tan will be affected,” he said, adding that people should vote for a capable candidate who can really see the nation’s interest and the one who can bring the changes not only in

their own constituency but also in the nation.

Likewise Tashi Tshering, 47, government employee, said that even “one vote” was really meant for the party who can govern well and the one who can take the role and responsibility of governing the nation. He also said, if the previ-ous government comes into power they should fulfill their undone works and if the new government comes in to the power they should rationalize their pledges.

Similarly Passang, 42 years old, Businessman, coming out jubilant from the polling station after

casting his vote at Jigme Loseling Primary school said that everyone should vote for the political party in a very intelligent way so that at the end of the day the individual does not hold any sort of regret or dissatisfaction. He also added that he feels that the electorates have un-derstood which party and candidate is better for the country and even in his family everyone had the same perception.

On the other hand Jigme Choden, 28, college student, said that, “we are only a five year old de-mocracy and the people of Bhutan are reaffirming and supporting the democ-racy and a few they think they are voting for the de-mocracy irrespective of the fact as to which party they have voted. She also added that as far as possible it should be rational and of an understanding as to why they were voting, and for whom they were vot-ing.”

While the nation was undergoing the second round of general election, most people who were in-terviewed by The Journal-ist shared similar views

demonstrating the under-standing of the importance of their individual rights as well as the responsibly in-volved in the democratic process.

woman said she is hap-py with the result and is hoping for the best thing to happen hereafter. And bring changes what DPT government couldn’t do it in his five years term.

“If one wants to see the change in the country, you should come forward and support PDP,” said the president of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) during his meeting with the people in Phuntshol-ing on June 25. So, the people of Bhutan support the PDP. The party is fo-cused on “change,” now the people are eager to see the changes that would be brought by the Peoples Democratic Party here-after. People of Bhutan already have high hope that the PDP will bring all the necessary changes in the country and benefit

the people. The people have voted for the win-ning party, for the ideas and actual plans they have offered the people.

Pema Choden, one of the private employees in Phuentsholing was over excited to watch the re-sults on BBS. “I had put on a wager with my friend since I was pretty sure my party was going to win,” she said.

Pema after watching the result on the televi-sion calls her friend and family with excitement.

Likewise, Kinley who was out of town and with-out television connectivity calls his friends to know about the result. “I am very happy and excited to know the result,” he told The Journalist add-ing that he is celebrating the day.

While there were many who were shouting and laughing over the result out of excitement, there were few who were disap-pointed and disheartened with the result.

Tshering, one of the res-idents of Phuentsholing was disappointed with the result and likewise, there are many who after the result were not very happy.

The hard work of the Peoples Democratic Par-ty has shown the posi-tive result. Now the only hope is to work on their plans and then prove to the people that they had taken the right decision by voting for the Peoples Democratic Party.

from Paro said “it doesn’t matter whoever wins, the main output from the new government should benefit the people and the nation.” Some of the pledges of PDP of deliver-ing helicopter and power tiller to the people, if it’s fulfilled than it would def-initely benefit the people of Bhutan and also im-prove the economy of the country. He further added that it is to some extent that people have to worry because it’s a new govern-ment, the second kind in the history of Bhutan and they have to learn more unlike the DPT as they have already ruled for five years. But whatever it is, “I believe PDP’s going to do well and bring hap-piness among the people and the nation.

According to Kuenzang lhadon, 33, a business

» continued from p 7


HHoME

| Pema Denkar - Phuentsholing

AlThouGh, most people the Journalist talked

to were happy that their vote played into the result, there were few who felt otherwise.

The voter turnout and the result of the primary round of election held on May 31 could have been different if private em-ployees had the opportu-nity of postal ballot.

on a random inter-view conducted by the Journalist around the country, almost 80 per-cent of the private em-ployees have not casted their vote.

Most of them said that the trouble of travelling a long journey to their re-spective constituencies to cast their ballot was not reasonable according to their financial status.

Norbu, a private em-ployee said that whatever the result may be, it is very sad that the private employees were not en-

“Get leave and vote” - Election Commissioner

titled for postal ballots.“More than 30 percent

of the population is pri-vate employees and if they were given the op-portunity of postal ballot, the number could have made some difference on the result,” he said.

Sonam choden, an-other private employee also said that most of the people working in private companies fall under low or middle income group and it is a huge burden to travel long way just to cast their vote.

She said, “If they were given the privilege of postal ballot, they would have exercised their fran-chise to vote,” and talk-ing about the results, she is not happy it.

Most of the private em-ployees interviewed said that the parties always spoke about improving the status of private en-trepreneurs but so far it has just been talks with-out implementation.

“Forget about the sup-port, we are even de-

prived of postal ballot,” said a frustrated Kinley Nidup adding that the politicians are not at all in the favor of private en-trepreneurs and private employees.

Kinley Yangden from Bardo-Trongconstituency presently working for a private company in Phuentsholing said that she didn’t vote against her wish.

“even if I decide to pay the expense of travel-ling, it is still difficult to get leave from office,” she said adding that she wishes the postal ballot opportunity was given to the private employees as well.

“The parties always say it is very important to develop private en-trepreneurs to develop the country, but where is the support when they cannot even give the same opportunity to us,” said a frustrated private employee in Phuentshol-ing who said that the result could have been

the other way around if every private employees had voted.

But still, most of the private employees are hopeful that the election commission would con-sider the issue and make some effort to give them the equal opportunity of postal ballot.

on the other hand, Dasho Kunzang Wangdi, election commissioner of election commission of Bhutan said that the postal ballot is given only to civil servants and armed forces since they are deployed on election duties and have no time to go and cast their vote.

Further, the postal ballot is also given to corporate employees who provide essential services whereby they are en-gaged in essential duties during the election time.

“But for private em-ployees they should get leave and cast their vote,” said the commis-sioner.

| Pema Denkar - 30 May 2013, Phuentsholing

The Bank of Bhutan was awarded a “Plaque of Merit”

in recognition of their “Need Based Scholarship Scheme” by the ADFIAP (Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacifics) on May 22.

The recognition was awarded for the corpo-rate Social responsibility category for the year 2012 at 36 ADFIAP An-nual Meeting held in ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The winner however was Development Bank of Japan, Inc. for “DBJ Women entrepreneurs center” selected by AD-FIAP from entries by

BoB bags the “Plaque of Merit” recognitionmembers in eight differ-ent categories.

The award recognizes the program, project or undertaking developed, adopted and instituted by the member that ad-vances and sustains re-sponsible citizenship for social good.

BoBl started to provide the Need Based Scholar-ship to five economically disadvantaged female candidates every year for completing their two years of high school edu-cation in 2009.

The selection was done by the Department of education, Youth Devel-opment Fund and BoBl based on the laid out pa-rameters for selecting the most economically and socially disadvantaged

candidate. Till date we have sponsored 20 fe-male candidates, 15 have already completed their high school education while five of them will be completing this year.

“one of the culture adopted by BoBl is Social responsibility which is for meeting community needs through beneficial partnership and to sup-port community growth”, said the ceo of BoBl, Pema Namgyel Nadik.

he added, “We won’t stop the partnership with the community here since we have to grow much more along with the society.

We will be support-ing the tree plantation in Phuentsholing this National Forestry Day

to support the environ-ment and Blood Dona-tion drive on 14th June in Thimphu with the support from JDWNM hospital during the Word Blood Donors Day”.

ADFIAP is an asso-ciation of development banks and other finan-cial institutions engaged in the financing of de-velopment in the Asia-Pacific region. Its mission is to advance sustainable development through its members.

Founded in 1976, AD-FIAP has currently 131 member-institutions in 45 countries. The Asian Development Bank is a Special Member of the Association. BoB is a member of ADFIAP since April 2011.

JUNE 9, 2013JULY 14, 2013

ADVERTS














HHoME

































TANG constituency.










NNATION

| PemaDenkar, Phuentsholing:

AMONG the hun-dreds who had come to vote at

Ahalay polling station in Pasakha was a 57-year-old Nandu Gurung from Tsho-Chhongna under Samphelling gewog who had walked to the poll-ing station with the help of his walking stick.

As he walks towards the polling station, se-curity officials helped him get his vote casted ahead without having to wait long in the line.

NanduGurung is the only eligible voter out of his six family members and who is physically disabled. According to him, he had become paralyzed since Septem-ber last year. He has two sons and two daughters who are all studying currently.

Unfortunately, none of his children and his wife has census thus deprived of casting their vote. Nandu although he is physically challenged, walked to cast his vote hoping that he can con-tribute towards electing the right government.

“I have voted and I am satisfied,” he said adding that he is hope-ful that the party he voted for would win the election.

When asked about the importance of vote, he said that every single vote is precious and he believes that a single vote would make a huge difference. “I have al-ways taken the opportu-nity seriously and I will vote as long as I live for the betterment of the country, people and the

king,” he said.While Nandu was sat-

isfied and happy after casting his vote, he told with the sad voice that he wished his wife and children could have vot-ed as well. “I got married to my wife who is from Dorokha but she doesn’t have census,” he said adding that he have ap-proached the gewog of-ficials and is still yet to receive a response.

“I have faith that one day my wife and chil-dren can also have citi-zenship and acquire the right to vote,” he said.

While, there are hun-dreds of people like Nandu who has fam-ily members deprived from casting their vote or those who keep them-selves away from public meetings and gatherings

due to citizenship issues but however Nandu said that his wife always made sure to attend such meetings.

“Today my wife told me to go and vote right early in the morning. Al-though she doesn’t has a citizenship she want-ed me to represent the family,” he said adding that she always feels sad and disheartened when she sees her friends and neighbors go to vote.

Talking to The Jour-nalist, Nandu said that he and his family always talk and discuss about the problem in question but always keeps them-selves optimistic that someday all the mem-bers of the family will earn the same right.

Apart from the cen-sus, Nandu’s family also has unsolved land issues so they stay in a tempo-rary hut.

Nandu used to work as a security guard be-fore he got paralyzed and today his wife is the only income generator in his family. “My wife works in other people’s farm and run our fam-ily,” he said adding that he wishes his land issues will be solved soon so he can settle down.

As he walked back home after casting his vote, he told that he doesn’t have much knowledge on where and how to approach for his problems but is hopeful that the elected govern-ment will help him out.

“I hope during the next election, all of my family members will join me to vote and elect the right government,” he said with a giggle and hopeful glint in his eyes.

For a person like Nan-du, election is a very big event and the lone vote that he had casted is weighed with hundreds of hope.

He believes that this is an opportunity for people like him to serve the country by casting a vote for the right gov-ernment. “I cannot do anything to serve my country except to vote for the rightful govern-ment,” he said adding that this is an opportu-nity the great leaders have bestowed upon the people.

the journalist covers elections 2013 in bhutan

Documents

leadership of dpt

election dayvoters

primary election outcome

track record of dpt

druk phuensum tshogpa

election commission

general round of election

bhutan ecb