It was not a smooth sailing round for the vice presidents of both the parties. In what was an unexpected result, both the opponents of the vice presidents sprang a massive surprise turning the tables in Bongo_Chapcha and Thrimshing Constituencies.
Bhutan Tendrel Party’s Vice President, Pema Tenzin lost to the People’s Democratic Party’s candidate Pempa by almost 5,000 votes.
He was able to secure only over 3,200 votes in total, from the Bongo-Chapcha Constituency.
Pema Tenzin just had 908 votes from postal ballots and 2,320 from Electronic Voting Machine, EVM.
However, his opponent, Pempa got elected with over 8,100 votes, of which 2,305 were from postal ballots and 5,826 were from EVM.
Pema Tenzin said, “It was the people who chose the ruling and opposition parties. I respect the decision of the people. All of the 47 members will serve in the parliament and both the parties have equal responsibility in policy making. If the decision of the government benefits the people, we will support it. However, if the plans and decisions are not good, we will strongly shoulder the responsibilities of the opposition.”
Although the People Democratic Party won the general elections, the party’s Vice President, Dorji Choden, lost her seat to BTP’s candidate Damche Tenzin.
The Thrimshing Constituency saw a close contest between the two parties. However, the PDP fell short of almost 300 votes against the BTP.
Dorji Choden could not get more than 2,443 votes, of which 1,410 votes were from postal ballots and 1033 votes through EVM.
Meanwhile, Damche Tenzin won by garnering 2,680 votes. He got 1,632 votes from postal ballots and 1,049 from EVM.
Dorji Choden said, “We don’t know where we lacked in our campaign. We did our campaigns for the General Round as we did for the Primary Round. I can never understand on what basis the voters cast their votes. Maybe they voted based on the capability or maybe they based it on rumours about candidates spread by others.”
Despite the result, both vice presidents plan to be engaged with their respective parties hereafter.
Deki Lhazom
Edited by Sangay Chezom
