KATHMANDU, Jan 10 (NNN-XINHUA) – The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won the general elections in Bhutan, provisional results showed, taking 30 seats, while the Bhutan Tendrel Party (BTP) secured 17 seats, local media reported.
After winning the first round of voting in Nov, 2023, the PDP and BTP contested yesterday’s vote across all 47 constituencies in the kingdom. A party has to win at least 24 constituencies to form a government.
According to data from the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) website, the BTP took the lead in most seats in eastern Bhutan, while the PDP garnered the most seats in western, southern and central Bhutan.
The BTP was founded in 2022, and is led by Pema Chewang, former secretary of the National Land Commission. The PDP was formed in 2007 by Tshering Tobgay, who led the government after the elections in 2013.
Both the previous government’s lawmakers and their former opposition were knocked out in the primary round.
The Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) said on Monday that, the provisional results released on the poll day will undergo a final verification process at the National Result Counting Centre, at ECB head office in Thimphu.
Voters cast their ballots at 812 polling stations across the country from 8.00 a.m. (0200 GMT) to 5.00 p.m. (1100 GMT) yesterday, with people queuing up in freezing temperatures in the mountainous country.
There were a total of 498,135 registered voters in the nation’s fourth parliamentary elections, including 117,114 postal ballot voters, or 23.5 percent of the total registered voters, BBS data showed.
Bhutan, a landlocked country with a population of around 800,000, held elections for the first time in 2008, after political reforms established a bicameral parliament, soon after the start of the reign of the present King, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.– NNN-XINHUA
