All five aspiring candidates from Lhuentse dzongkhag sailed through the gewog zomdu to contest in the up-coming National Council elections.

The last gewog to have a candidate, Gangzur, selected their lone candidate, Kinga Penjor yesterday.

The senior producer with the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) secured 255 yes votes against 28 no.

During his introduction yesterday, he informed the public not to waste their voting franchise by choosing a wrong candidate. “There are some who regret seeing the performance of their candidates in the house,” he said.

On March 3, Rinzin Rinzin from Khoma gewog got 269 yes votes and six no votes. He is contesting for the second time, after he lost to the incumbent Tenpa Dorji in the 2013 election.

Today, the election officials will go to Maedtso gewog to brief the public. There is no candidate from the gewog so far. Minjey and Tsaenkhar gewogs also do not yet have candidates.

Of the eight gewogs, Gangzur has the highest number of voters at 3,150 while Jarey has the least with 1, 284 votes as of now.

Though the turn out at Gangzur gewog was low compared to its population, few youth came to vote for the first time.

Lhuentse’s gewog zomdu concludes on March 8.

Tashi Tenzin | Lhuentse