It took an excavator almost two days to clear two farm roadblocks in Semjong gewog, Tsirang.
The block was cleared for traffic 30 minutes after polling and presiding officials arrived at the block site in Dekiling, 10km away from the gewog centre yesterday.
Semjong gup, Top Nath Archarja, said the block was cleared just to let election duty officials cross across yesterday.
“It is also being cleared to remove all debris from the block site in both the locations,” he said. “By tomorrow, we’ll clear it all. We hope there won’t be heavy rainfall so that it remains clear until poll day.”
Another farm road was also blocked in Phuntenchu gewog, which was also cleared just before election duty officials reached the site.
The farm road connecting one of the furthest chiwogs in Barshong gewog, Chunikhang, was also blocked until yesterday afternoon.
An excavator was deployed for few days earlier to clear the block but heavy rainfall on the night of September 11 again blocked the road. “We’ve cleared it all now and let election duty officials cross the block,” Barshong gup Santa Lal Poudel said.
Tsirang election office has deployed 234 officials on election duty and claims the dzongkhag is all set for the poll day.
Returning officers began deploying presiding and polling officers as early as 7am.
The deployment was done gewog wise, sending the officials deputed to the furthest gewog first.
There are 44 polling stations in Tsirang, of which nine are temporary sheds. The dzongkhag has 23,696 registered voters, of which 11,675 are female.
Meanwhile in Dagana, besides a huge boulder blocking the farm road in Tsangkha gewog, all other roads are open to traffic. The boulder was removed early to let election duty officials cross without delay.
Dagana has deployed 225 presiding and polling officials on election duty.
The dzongkhag has 46 polling stations with 24,570 registered voters of which 12,281 are female. Three of the polling stations in Largyab, Goshi and Tashiding gewog are temporary sheds.
Nirmala Pokhrel | Tsirang