The two parties poised for the final round of election and ready to take the parliament for another five years have their pledges to improve the health conditions. The pledges run parallel for both DPT and PDP with some measures differing in the approach.
DPT having brawled in the implementation of tenth five year plan is looking for more capacity building side of the improvement in health interventions, while PDP is promising for more local-based technical improvements of the infrastructures required in health sector.
DPT’s pledge sounds like a general assumption of a hypothesis which is yet to be tested. Some pledges are too vague like this: Improve the quality and efficacy of health system. The assumption is that health system is a self-operating machine which can be just handled with a magical touch in a few years period. Similar is this one: Remodel the health system into a caring and compassionate service provider.
It carries the emotional lofty goal that cannot be done in a period of few decades, which has never shown that sign until now under compassionate and visionary rulers.
PDP wants to address the shortage of doctors immediately. No, it is not so easy to make it happen. At the time when doctors are leaving their professional careers to join parties, PDP’s pledge does not hold water. It cannot be immediate, but in the long run of improving the health system with enough manpower. The idea of ambulance helicopters for emergency evacuation is remarkably laudable idea of PDP, given the fair weather roads and inaccessible topography of the country.
It is quite indiscernible as to how the waiting time at OPD can be reduced when the advanced medical facilities are only available in the capital. Privatization of health care is also quite a new idea but that is going to be too inaccessible for major chunk of the rural poor.
Whatever may be the pledges that came at the election period, it will be several road bumps to improve the health interventions and healthy practice of Bhutanese populace. Where personal hygiene is not a concern, where rabid dogs walk in streets with virus pouring out of their snarling mouth, where water borne diseases are still inflicting the children and infants, pneumonia causing death before one reaches to the health center, the pledges can peel off before actually establishing the right course. Nothing about the prenatal and post natal care of mothers and infants are in the pledge, and the interventions required meeting the immediate need of delivering mothers. Instead, figures are spelled out to reduce the maternal and infant mortality.
Doctors who never look at the history of illness in a patient can never deliver a compassionate and caring treatment. And the diagnosis which cannot identify the seriousness of an illness can never bring quality and efficacy in the health system.
Take the recent example of death of four people in the hospital from mushroom poisoning.
A two-member Bhutanese delegation is currently in the Swiss capital Geneva to highlight their plight at high-level NGO consultations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Bishnu Maya Dhungana (left) and Parsuram Sharma-Luital JP in Geneva, Switzerland
Fourth year in a row, Bhutanese-Australian Parsuram Sharma-Luital JP, reached Ganeva on June 11 as a delegate of the Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) for attending the UNHCR consultations, expected to garner over 450 delegates from more than 250 NGOs from around the world.
The next Bhutanese delegate is Bishnu Maya Dhungana, a women representative from Beldangi-II Refugee Camp. Dhungana reached Genava on Sunday afternoon, Luitel informed the Bhutan News Service.
The Bhutanese delegates would have opportunities of meeting UNHCR Asia Bureau with Director Daisy Dell, UNHCR Resettlement Service Head Renata Dubini, Director of UNHCR’s Division of International Protection Volker Turk, and UNHCR Middle East and North Africa Bureau Director Yacoub El Hillo, according to Luitel.
“As in the previous years, we have so many things to be discussed with UNHCR officials at decision-making positions,” said Luitel, who has flown to Geneva from Melbourne.
While, Dhungana said that the pathetic living conditions of those still residing in refugee camps, challenge facing youths, women and children, and issues related to resettlement were her priorities during the consultations.
According to Luitel, the meeting would enable them to provide direct feedback on the concerns of refugee communities, particularly those related to the safety of often neglected groups of refugees still in difficult circumstances in Nepal and different western countries.
While in Geneva, he will also be a part of discussion to be hosted in the sidelines by the Refugee Council of Australia and the Canadian Council for Refugees for discussing cooperation on advocacy between refugees NGOs in the five Anglophone countries (UK, USA, New Zealand, Canada and Australia) whose governments work most closely together on immigration policy.
The delegates are scheduled to attend the broader NGO conference, which has many thematic agendas for discussion. The UNHCR High Commissioner António Guterres will be addressing the inaugural session Tuesday morning.
Know our delegates Parsuram Sharma – Luital JP is a Bhutanese-Australian from Melbourne, Australia. He works as New and Emerging Communities Liaison Officer at the North West Metro Region of Victoria Police.
File Photo: Luital with UNHCR High Commissioner António Guterres in Geneva last year
Luitel, who has established himself as one of the most active and vocal Bhutanese in the diaspora, is also the recipient of the Victorian Refugee Recognition Record Award (2009), and Multicultural Award for Excellence for Outstanding Service to the Community (2010 & 2012). He also hosted the Victoria’s larger multicultural festival last year.
He is the founding and immediate past president of the Bhutanese Organization in Australia, advisory committee chair of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia (FECCA), convener and board member of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV), executive committee member of the South Asian Community Link Group (SACLG) Australia, community ambassador of the Australian Football League (AFL) Multicultural Program, and White Ribbon Ambassador of the Fighting Violence Against Women.
He is married and has three children, and has a master’s degree in horticulture.
While, Bishnu Maya Dunugana is a refugee women activist from Beldangi-II Refugee Camp, and is associated with the Bhutanese Refugee Women Forum (BRWF).
The Centre for Refugee Research of the University of New South Wales in Australia has funded her travel for attending the UNHCR’s NGO consultations
She attended the Women and Girls at Risk Training organized by the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) in Sri Lanka in January this year.
Dhungana is the first Bhutanese from the refugee camps to come in UNHCR NGO consulations and raise the issue with the support of CRR from Australia.
A young man in his late 20s died on Friday following his suicide attempt on Monday morning by hanging in a tree in Syracuse, NY.
Prem Regmi (Picture courtesy: His family)
Prem Regmi, a former refugee from Bhutan was found hanging and unconscious at around 2 AM on Monday by Syracuse police that immediately rushed the former to Upstate Medical University.
He was kept at Intensive Care Unit at the hospital until Friday when he was pronounced dead by the team of doctor that was taking his care.
According a medical team that attended this case, Regmi’s blood vessels were completely damaged and he had a severe brain injury.
The deceased originally hailed from Mainatar village of Sarbhang District in Bhutan, and he was residing temporarily in Beldangi II refugee camp, Sector A-3, Hut No 44-45 before getting resettled in Syracuse, NY in early 2009.
Late Regmi is survived by a wife and a two years’ old daughter who have been living separately in Colorado for months.
Earlier, Mitra Mishra hanged him to death at Schiller park in Syracuse in July 05, 2010. However, the exact cause of both suicides has not been known so far.
The number of suicides witnessed by the Bhutanese community in the United States has fairly remained variable. The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement reported 16 suicides were confirmed among U.S. resident Bhutanese refugees as of February 2012.
While, the International Organization for Migration has documented 67 suicides and 64 attempts between 2004 and 2010 in the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal.
Some of the Bhutanese resettled in the United Kingdom attended an international conference titled ‘Research Project Looking at the Outcomes of Bhutanese Refugee Resettlement all Across the World’ held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London on May 22-23.
The Bhutanese delegates
The Takin Association UK said it was delighted that some members from the community were a part of such a prestigious conference, where panellists and speakers from various walks of life presented their views, informed its Secretary Kashi Pokhrel.
Chief of the Kathmandu-based Communication Corner and Ujyaalo 90 Network, Mr. Gopal Guragain, spoke about changing relations between refugees and local communities in Nepal.
While, Mr. Mani Thapa, an honorary member of TAUK, highlighted the challenges he had to face when he first arrived in the United Kingdom a decade before.
However, TAUK Chairperson, Mr. Lok Nath Bajgai Sharma, reflected on his experiences in arriving with the Gateway Protection Programme in 2010, and outlined some of the issues Bhutanese refugees have been facing in their post resettlement phase.
Mr. Ramesh Ghimirey, Mr. Ajay Thapa and Mr. Dilli Khadka were other Bhutanese who presented their views as regards to the challenges facing their lives in the United Kingdom, according to Pokhrel.
The Association has also thanked Professor Michael Hutt, author of a noted research book on the Bhutanese refugees ‘Unbecoming Citizen’, Dr. Tania Kaiser, Dr. Roz Evans, Miss Mona Chhetri, Miss Nicole Hoellerer and all other attendees and supporters of this conference for granting a participatory opportunity.
Ms. Ilse Griek, a Dutch researcher on the Bhutanese refugee issue, was also one of the panellists.
All attendees applauded presentations made during the two-day conference.
When Divesh Rizal laced up his roller skates during Senior Fun Day, the next few moments would speak volumes about the young man’s perseverance and determination.
Divesh Rizal
“It was clear he had never been on skates before, but that didn’t matter,” said Marsha Williams, Rizal’s counselor at Parkdale High School in Prince George’s County. “He didn’t care that he fell. He kept on going. Then the kids were cheering. But that speaks to who Divesh is. He doesn’t give up.”
Rizal, who graduated from Parkdale High School on Friday, came to the United States less than two years ago with his father and two younger sisters, all refugees from Bhutan. He said he started at the school feeling alienated, as many immigrants do.
“I was lost; I had no friends,” he said. “Even after going to school for a couple of months, I was in a limited social circle.”
Rizal leaves Parkdale as a Gates Millennium Scholar and is headed to Vermont’s Middlebury College in the fall. He is one of six students in Prince George’s — and one of 1,000 minority students nationwide — to receive the Gates scholarship, a “good-through-graduation” scholarship to any college or university they choose.
He said he has his sights on becoming a genetic researcher.
Rizal said the turning point in his high school journey was participating in the Capitol One student banking program, which allowed him to work as a banker in a real student-run bank at the school.
“It helped me to relate,” said Rizal, 18, who lives in Riverdale. “I come from a different way of life. This helped guide me.”
Part of Rizal’s “different” upbringing involved living in the small huts of a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal, where he had to venture out each day to get water, and where there was no air conditioning or heat.
He learned English at a boarding school his parents operate. He said he still struggles with the language but watches television and reads Time magazine to help him balance what he calls “formal” and “informal” speech.
“I try to catch the words, the type of combinations of words,” he said.
When Rizal isn’t reading, he enjoys hiking and traveling.
He also gained an appreciation for tennis after trying out for his high school’s team.
And he credits Liberty’s Promise, an after-school program at Parkdale that helps immigrant students learn about their community and their new country, with expanding his horizons by introducing him to “notable figures” in the community, such as County Council member Eric Olson (D-College Park).
“He was a strong leader for his peers,” said Allison Bouley, a program officer at Liberty’s Promise. “He was always the first person to ask questions and then to approach a guest speaker. . . . But there is also a lightheartedness about him.”
Williams said she imagines that Rizal’s determination comes from his life experiences and his strong family ties.
“He is one of those students, if there is an obstacle that arises in a class, he doesn’t shy away from it, he chips away at it until he figures out an answer,” Williams said. “A lot of our students come from other countries. It takes them a little longer, from my experience. But it was like he didn’t miss a beat.”
Rizal said he is looking forward to the next chapter, attending college and living in the Vermont mountains.
“I’ve lived in the mountains; mountains are a part of my life,” he said.
And the New England winters?
“I’m very excited about seeing snow,” Rizal said. “I want to experience everything.
Manchester — After being exiled from his native Bhutan at age 4, Chuda Niroula spent the next two decades in a Nepali refugee camp with no running water, no electricity and never enough food. Almost two years ago he arrived in Manchester as one of the 60,000 to 80,000 refugees taken in each year by the U.S.
Chuda Niroula sits outside his apartment
Though it was difficult, Niroula said he welcomed the challenges that came with life here. Chief among those was speaking the language: despite learning English in Nepal he struggled communicating with Americans at first
Now, at 26, he is married and works two jobs to support his parents and younger siblings.
While many Bhutanese have transitioned well to life in U.S. — and they are all better off than they were in refugee camps — many, especially those older than 40, are struggling, Niroula said.
“Bhutanese are facing lot of challenges, because they are jobless,” he said.
The refugees aren’t the only ones having trouble coping with the transition. The growing number of refugees could be jarring for one of the least diverse states in the country. In the past decade, the number of immigrants in New Hampshire has grown by 36 percent, outpacing national growth by 6 percent.
Refugees are still a fraction of the population in the state’s largest city. A task force estimates there are 3,500 in Manchester out of a total population of 110,000. State Department figures show that between 2000 and 2010, almost 2,500 refugees were resettled in the city, just over half New Hampshire’s total during that period.
A central fear is that because services for refugees are frontloaded to their arrival, those who don’t transition well immediately are falling through the cracks. That could become costly for the city.
But advocates for refugees say that ignores the positive contributions of those who find their footing and become active in the community or open new businesses.
In November 2011, Mayor Ted Gatsas, a Republican then newly elected to his second term, drew national attention after asking the State Department to stop resettling refugees to Manchester. In a recent interview, he said he still believes the city could benefit from break in their arrival.
“We’ve got refugees in this community that don’t know the language, don’t have a job, and what I’ve been saying is let us catch our breath. Let us get these people into working society, so they’re good examples of the city of Manchester,” he said. “You can’t do that by bringing 300 more refugees on top of that.”
Dr. Jacqueline Verville, director of the Holy Cross Family Resource Center, which provides English classes and other services, said her organization is far from being maxed out, adding that Holy Cross is only one of many groups providing similar services. She said she believed there should be no restrictions on new arrivals but acknowledged many immigrants do struggle.
Refugees arrive in U.S. with debt, as they’re expected to reimburse the government within three years for their flight. After 180 days, the material support from resettlement agencies runs out.
From R-L: Father Khada, sister Radhika, Chuda, his wife Radhika Dhital, mother Parbati, and one of his two younger brothers, Hari. His youngest brother Tilak was resettled just last week from Beldangi-II Extension Refugee Camp.
The Manchester task force collected figures in 2010 showing 85 percent of refugees became taxpayers within a year. That’s not indicative of full employment, as many refugees find short-term or seasonal work, but permanent positions are harder to come by.
Niroula’s family is part of the growing Bhutanese community in New Hampshire, centered in Manchester, which began arriving in 2008.
They are the most recent wave of refugees to land in New Hampshire. Several thousand African and Middle Eastern refugees — mostly Iraqi, Somali and Sudanese — were resettled there in the first part of the last decade and continue to arrive in much smaller numbers.
During the last session, Gatsas led a failed push pass a bill at the state level giving municipalities the authority to enact a one-year moratorium on new refugee resettlement.
Among the issues he raised at the time was poor communication between the city and the resettlement agency, though he said that relationship has improved.
Carolyn Benedict-Drew, president and CEO of the International Institute of New England, which places refugees in the Boston, Lowell and Manchester areas, said communication is difficult because her organization sometimes gets little notice of new arrivals, but she’s not sure there’s actually a problem.
“I’m not convinced the mayor is speaking on behalf of the majority of constituents in Manchester,” she said in an interview. “The mayor has been very clear he would like to have no more refugees in his community, and that’s not going to happen.”
Despite not seeing eye to eye, her organization has reached an informal detente with the mayor. She said they have agreed to resettle only refugees with immediate family in the area, but ultimately those decisions are up to the State Department.
New refugees began arriving again last October, and she said the institute will place close to 200 during the current fiscal year, which ends in September.
To take some of the pressure off Manchester, close to 50 will be resettled in nearby Nashua.
Bava Berhane, director of the refugee services division with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, said the mayor’s request is unusual and most resettlement communities welcome refugees, despite occasional challenges.
Bhutanese-Australian, Parsuram Sharma-Luitel, who is based in Melbourne, called on Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, Sunday.
Luitel presents multicultural DVD and photo album to Australian Prime Minister GillardParsuram Sharma – Luitel presents Bhutan’s flag and bangchung to Aussie PM (Courtesy: Namastenepal)
“It was my great privilege to meet our honourable Prime Minister, and thank her government to resettle Bhutanese refugees in Australia,” Luitel told Bhutan News Service.
On behalf of the Bhutanese community, he also presented the national flag, a traditional khada, bangchung (a traditional Bhutanese handicraft), a photo album and a DVD of the recent multicultural festival hosted by Luitel and his colleagues to the Aussie PM.
During a breakfast sitting with the Prime Minister, Luitel was able to directly thank Gillard and the Australian Government for resettling the exiled Bhutanese, and reported on the progress made by the resettled Bhutanese in short span of time of five years.
In response, the Prime Minister is learnt to have thanked the Bhutanese community for the presents.
Gillard also mentioned that her government has made some nation-building long-term policies announcements, which would help all Australians including migrants to be inclusive in the Australian society.
The morning breakfast was organised by Mohammad Masood, and co-hosted and coordinated by Farrukh Hussain, President of South Asian Community Link Group (SACLG) -Australasia Inc, and invited selected community leaders from wide range of communities.
The organizers invited Luitel to represent Bhutanese community and a recent inductee as the Executive Committee Member of SACLG-Australasia, In-charge of Community and Grants Affairs.
Around 80 people attended the special morning sitting with the Prime Minister, informed Luitel.
Other guests included State Member of Parliaments and former ministers, elected councillors from the municipality of Wyndham, Hume, and Whittlesea, multi-faith leaders, People of Australia Ambassadors.
His Majesty the King of Bhutan,
Royal Secretariat,
Tashichho Dzong,
Thimphu, Bhutan
Subject: An appeal for dialogue to resolve the Bhutanese refugee crisis
Your Majesty,
Humbly and respectfully, we submit to apprise the following issues of our concern to Your Majesty and the Government of Bhutan for consideration in the long-term interest of peace, stability and integrity of the diverse population of Bhutan.
Our motherland, Bhutan has covered long distances and had made great strides in a variety of ways in attaining the states of nation state. Ever since various actors are on play, one after another with vested political and diplomatic acumen creating hostile circumstances between Royal Institution and the people at their behest. Given the present nitty-gritty and a situation abiding of tightrope work faced by the country, we on exile feel with restive the compulsions of Your Majesty despite being enlightened and imbued with welfare of the country and the people.
King Jigme Khesar
We are Your Majesty’s subjects with high respect, regard and commitment to protect and preserve the sovereignty, Royal Institution and serve the fellow countrymen in a conducive atmosphere. In no sense, we appeal to be undermined, mistaken or alleged. Since the inception of the hereditary monarchy, the Bhutanese people either they be Sharchhops, Nglongs, Kurtekpas, Khengpas, Doyas, Brokpas and Lhotshampas have given tremendous love and affection to their kings making them ‘people’s kings’.
Each community has contributed significantly in defending, protecting and developing Bhutan. The Bhutanese people are patriotic, innocent, disciplined and dedicated to the nation. But, most importantly and relevantly, the previous government has stepped too rigorously in the cultural, civil, political and economic aspects of the people. What crime had the citizens committed in voicing against the arbitrary policies of the government and demanding a change for the largest interest of the people, which Your Majesty is always for. The Bhutan Peoples’ Party, follows democratic socialism, believes in a constitutional monarchy with the multi-party democracy, admires and appreciates the noble decision of Your Majesty for initiating the process of democratisation in the kingdom of Bhutan. As a universally accepted principle, the values of democracy are to ensure and safeguard equal rights, freedom and justice to the people of all section of society and individuals. It is also to ensure peace and development in a country, where every citizen have the defined role and responsibility to play in the nation-building task.
The Government must accept that the land in the southern districts were basically unwanted for settlement by those from the northern Bhutanese fearing wild animals and malaria in the past. It was these Lhotshampas who boldly initiated settlement and turned fertile after years of their occupation. Surrender of the 18 Duars to the British India supports the fact that the southern territories were vulnerable until occupation by the Lhotshampas. Therefore, unless our brethren are resettled in the government vacant lands, any justice being done to the Lhotshampas won’t be seen, and there is no reason why conflict is not justified in such a situation.
The Bhutanese refugee are the offshoot of the political crisis that ignited following the forceful implementation of the “One Nation, One People” policy on a heterogeneous mass which is a miscalculated political misadventure. With the people living under suppressive rule, we are convinced to mention here that neither the state of internal affairs is congenial nor the friendship and co-operation with our age-old neighbors exist as before. With over one hundred thousand of Bhutanese citizens living as refugees, and their landed properties issued against their wills to other communities, when the world is preparing to grasp greater opportunities from the new millennium going beyond frontiers, we are unfortunately getting isolated from the rest of the world as we are sowing the seeds of ethnic conflict and creating our own pit holes. At this critical juncture, the destiny of our nation lies on Your Majesty’s wisdom and farsightedness.
We believe that we are Bhutanese citizens and our first duty is to protect our sovereignty and the Royal Institution for our identity. A patriotic power-holder would not design for Categorization to aid fuel to the fire. We have created history of bitterest critics so far and it may be detrimental to proceed further. But denial of repatriation of over one hundred thousand Bhutanese citizens in exile and deprivation of adult franchise to the genuine citizens within the country shows that the present political changes are not balanced and inclusive. It may also be noted that a large number of political prisoners are still languishing in the Bhutanese prisons without fair trials, who should also be released enabling them to take part in the democratic process. Negligence to address these vital issues can never be in the interest of ushering in sustainable democracy but can invite serious problem to the nation in near future.
The democratic processes initiated in our kingdom unfortunately have failed to appreciate and uphold the democratic principles as practised by the global democracies of twenty first century. If democracy is to guarantee the social justice and political rights to every citizen of the country, favourable political environment has to be created where every citizen can participate in the process in a free and fair atmosphere. How can there be a true, functional, vibrant and inclusive democracy when over hundred thousand Bhutanese citizens (living in exile as refugee) are excluded from the process of democratisation and other related political processes.
We humbly make this democratic proposal to Your Majesty considering the living examples of the constitutional monarchs in the kingdoms like Sweden, England, the Netherlands, Japan, Thailand and many other democratic countries. We believe that a healthy constitution will not only legitimize the constitutional monarchy but also will guarantee stability, justice and prosperity of the nation as a whole. Bhutanese people are in a way fortunate that we have examples around us, which would guide if we appropriately try to learn from their mistakes. The Somalia, Bosnian and recently Syria conflicts is one of that has been emerged as a result of constitutional lacking to address the multicultural, multilingual and multiracial issues. We also cannot rule out constitutional loopholes for the ongoing civil disobedience involving Indigenous Peoples and other unending ethnic conflicts in the neighboring countries.
At this critical juncture, Your Majesty, the Bhutan Peoples’ Party is making this appeal to understand our sincere aspirations and enter into un-conditional dialogue for the common good of us all. We assure Your Majesty that we are Your people and would compromise on possible aspects from within 13 points demand placed before to the then king during 1990.
We remain, anticipating Your Majesty’s wisdom and justice.
In an attempt to celebrate high school graduation for the academic year 2012-13, resettled Bhutanese in Georgia organized an event at Atlanta School for Deaf, Clarkston, Georgia on June 1.
High school graduates
According to one of the members of the Bhutanese high school graduation celebration committee, BM Kaling, the event was aimed at establish the culture of celebrating high school graduation and educational information exchange within the community.
The program also saw cultural performances by the local Bhutanese artists, according to Khaling.
Another highlight of the event was a panel discussion. Various panelists including Yeshey Pelzom, a graduate from Agnes Scott College (Atlanta) and master’s degree holder from the King’s College (United Kingdom), Bill Gates Scholar Ram Siwakoti, a current student at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta presented their views during the event.
Lila Siwakoti, 2013 recipient of Gates Millennium Scholarship Program was specially honored
According to Khaling, Pelzom spoke on realizing one’s potential to soar high academically and be what one wants to be which is possible in the United States.
Meanwhile, other speakers from different agencies inspired the young graduates with success stories of former refugees who came to the United States before the Bhutanese, informed Khaling.
The event was funded by the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta (Neighborhood Fund).
Bhutan’s parliamentary election is based on the principle of first pass the post, mean to eliminate the other parties by a primary round of polls, allowing only two parties to go through the second round.
The primary round is over by 6pm Friday, the time for closing the ballot and beginning of vote counting.
The 850 polling stations in 47 constituencies are also the vote counting centers, except those received by post. Kuensel, the official national daily carries the provisional result, which goes in favor of DPT and PDP with highest, and second highest vote counts.
Courtesy: Kusensel
There is varying figures of vote secured by DPT in different media outlets in Bhutan: for example it is 93547 (the Bhutanese), 93895 (Facebook page I love my country Bhutan) and same figure in the BBS page. DPT again enjoys a sweeping victory in 33 constituencies while PDP won from 12 constituencies and DNT from 2.
Going by the percentage of votes, DPT won 44.5%, PDP won 32.5%, DNT secured 17.1% while DCT got only the dregs, 5.9%.
Official record shows the number of total voters to be just 381790 of which accepted postal ballots are around 50,000. It is noteworthy that in a country whose total population is stated to stand at 750000 ( the figure is rough), a little over 50% of the population are taken as eligible voters.
Two districts, Samtse and Trashigang has the highest number of registered voters. In both these districts, DPT is in the lead. In Sipsu, PDP is the winner but in most of the constituencies of Trashigang, DPT is the choice of majority.
The postal ballots received are being opened and in many cases these ballots are regarded invalid and rejected for the reason of lacking certain stipulated specifications.
The general round of election will take place in July 13, during which the two winning parties will contest among the candidates fielded in their constituencies.
