The Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) penalised the former Dumtoed Gup in Samtse for recharging a talk time voucher to a voter. Two gup candidates from the same chiwog filed a complaint with the commission alleging the former Gup on four different charges of corrupt practices.
According to the complaint letter received on November 20 by the Returning Officer of the Dophuchen-Tading constituency in Samtse, the two complainants accused the former gup of giving away talk time vouchers to the public, purchasing a mobile phone and gifting it to a voter, signing of a Loan and a Marriage Certificate documents by backdating, and granting unauthorized permission for sports during the pandemic and campaign period of the LG election.
Following the complaint, an investigation was initiated. The findings were presented to the Dzongkhag Election Dispute Settlement Body. The body held two hearings thereafter. The case was then forwarded to the Central Election Dispute Settlement Body (CEDSB) at the head office in Thimphu last week.
Of the four allegations, the CEDSB team found the former gup guilty of violating section 518(a) of the Election Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan 2008 by recharging a Nu 200 talk time voucher to only one of the voters from the village. The complaint letter had alleged the former Gup of giving away vouchers to six people.
However, according to the justification letter from the former Gup, he used to recharge talk time vouchers to most of his villagers and relatives not only on the dates mentioned in the complaint letters but also before the completion of his Gup’s tenure. It also stated that he had recharged their vouchers on November 1 purely in respect to the coronation day and to get bonuses.
Regarding the purchasing of a cellphone as a gift to a voter, they found out that the alleged mobile phone recipient was his nephew. He stated that he had only borrowed Nu 9000 from the former Gup to purchase a mobile phone. He claimed to have also returned Nu 8000 on the 12th of September.
Likewise, the allegations of the signing of a Loan and a Marriage Certificate documents by backdating were also proven baseless as the loan applicant in his statement said the documents to avail loan from BDBL was signed on October 25 during the gup’s tenure. Similarly, the statement of the Marriage Certificate applicant also revealed that he had never met with the Gup and there was no need for a Gup’s initial in the marriage certificate.
And the team also did not find strong evidence with regard to the granting unauthorized permission for the Khuru and Volleyball tournament during the pandemic and period of the LG election. Moreover, both the complainants were also found to be present during the conduct of the event.
The ECB’s Central Election Dispute Settlement Body decided to issue a warning and impose a penalty of Nu 7,500 as per section 29.1.2 of the Election Dispute Settlement Rules and Regulations of the Kingdom of Bhutan 2018.
Passang Dorji, BBS, Samtse
