A Royal decree was issued by His Majesty the King allowing the graduates registered with the political parties to register for the Bhutan Civil Service Examination (BCSE). As per the Bhutan Civil Service Rules and Regulations 2012, they were not allowed to register for the examination.
The Bhutan civil service rules and regulations 2012, states that a candidate shall not be eligible to appear for the BCSE if they have participated in politics and not completed the required cooling period of three years.
However, the graduates, who were registered with the parties, said they were unaware of such rules and neither were the parties.
They added there should be advocacy programs on such rules by the relevant agencies. Graduates also said such rules could deter youth from participating in the democratic process.
One of the commissioners from the Royal Civil Service Commission, Prithiman Pradhan, said in order to avoid such incidence in the future, advocacy and awareness programmes will be conducted. He also said the waiver of the three year cooling period is applicable only to the graduates who are appearing for the civil service examination this year.
The waiver applies only to the graduates who registered themselves as members of the political parties. For those who contested as candidates for the political parties the cooling period will remain as three years only. RCSC has also advised the graduates to immediately deregister themselves from the political parties they were affiliated with. With the royal decree issued the RCSC extended the registration for the BCSE until the midnight of July 30 from the initial deadline of July 23.
