Of the 14,406 registered voters in Thimphu, about 4,600 voters did not exercise their franchise during the primary round of the National Assembly election on September 15.

Only 67.9 percent of the people in the capital voted for the four parties.

Of the 9,283 voters who voted, 41.2 percent of the voters cast was in favour of Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa.

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) secured 25.2 percent of the total votes, followed by Druk Phunsum Tshogpa (DPT) with 23.3 percent. Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party managed 10.32 percent of the total votes.

According to the voters in Thimphu, a party that would bring positive change in the lives of the people and promises to work towards benefitting everyone was what they looked for voted for to form government.

Both the electronic voting machine (EVM) and postal ballot results followed the same trend. DNT secured the highest in both the electronic voting machine (EVM) and postal ballot, followed by PDP.

DNT won 742 postal ballot votes, 297 more than PDP. DPT won 327 postal ballot votes.

DNT’s president, Lotay Tshering, won a landslide victory in his constituency with 2,816 of 5,592 total votes cast in South Thimphu. DPT’s Kinley Tshering secured the second highest with 1,173, followed by PDP’s Tandin Dorji with 1,133 votes.

PDP’s candidate from South Thimphu, Tandin Dorji, said the DNT president won in his constituency because despite losing the first election, he kept working hard and kept in touch with the people in his constituency.

“PDP secured the second highest because of the pledges the former government fulfilled and also because of the party’s hard work,” he said.

The people in North Thimphu chose PDP with the party securing 1,333 votes out of 4,218 votes. DNT came second.

In 2016, PDP’s candidate, Tshering, filled the vacant North Thimphu seat in the National Assembly left by Kinga Tshering, who resigned to pursue higher studies abroad.

DNT’s candidate from North Thimphu, Dechen Wangmo, said the Tshering had done good work for his people and that is why the people voted for him. “He won most of the votes from Kawang because he had done quite a good for the people.”

Dechen Tshomo

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