Kuensel Newspaper - Sangay Ngedup: PDP giving confidence to the people

1 March, 2008 - The president of the People’s Democratic Party, Sangay Ngedup, made his first visit to the south-eastern dzongkhag of Samdrup Jongkhar this week, generating much excitement among voters. Ardent PDP supporters feel that the visit would help the party maintain its support in the 11 gewogs of the dzongkhag.

Sangay Ngedup had not visited the dzongkhag during the familiarization campaign. He decided to do so this time to introduce the party’s candidates in the dzongkhag’s two constituencies. “With this visit, I’ve covered all 20 dzongkhags because every constituency is important for us,” he said.

“Even if I don’t get elected, we have 46 capable people who can be ministers,” said the PDP president. He promised that one of the five women candidates would be a minister.

Hundreds of people from the five gewogs of Pemathang, Martshala, Phuntshothang, Samrang and Lauri were seated on the ground of Thangchoe Goenpa in Pemathang yesterday, as they listened to the party president in rapt attention. One third of the gathering were women.

Addressing the diverse population of sharchhops and lhotshampas, Sangay Ngedup said that there should be unity among the people. In a meeting, that lasted an hour and a half, the PDP president also briefed the people from both the constituencies on what his party believed in and what the party aimed for.

The PDP president then introduced to the gathering the two candidates, Mingbo Dukpa for the Deothang-Gomdar constituency and Pelzang Wangchuk for Jomotsangkha-Martsala. “I guarantee that the two candidates will deliver the best,” he said with conviction. “They have to ‘walk the talk’ and they will not make empty promises.”

The president told the meeting that, while PDP was trying to give confidence to the people, DPT was trying to instill fear by talking about all the negative elements of party politics.

“GNH is the main goal for both parties and we should work towards it together,” said Sangay Ngedup.

With less than three weeks to the National Assembly election, the president’s visit to the villages will influence a lot of undecided voters, according to 45-year-old Tendy Zangpo of Martshala gewog. “As I’m still deciding whom I should vote for, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to witness the president’s campaign,” he said.

Another voter from Lauri said that Sangay Ngedup was a popular figure and a lot of them in the villages had a high regard for him as the party president. “I’ll definitely support him and the party because of what he’s done for us in the villages when he was the agriculture minister,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa president, Jigmi Y Thinley, is also campaigning in Samdrup Jongkhar to maintain the support DPT has in the dzongkhag. Samdrup Jongkhar has about 23,763 voters.