Nine Nepali speaking candidates elected to Bhutans Druk Assembly
March 26th, 2008 - 3:29 pm ICT by admin Kakadbhitta, Mar 26 (ANI): Nine Nepali-speaking candidates were elected to Bhutans National Assembly.
They are all from the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), the party led by former Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Y Thinley.
Of the nine, Lila Pradhan is the sole woman. She has been elected from Samchi District with 4,592 votes.
All four constituencies of the southern district, mostly inhibited by Nepali speakers, saw the victory of the Nepali-speaking candidates. The other victors in the district are Thakur Singh Poudel, Durga Prasad Chhetri and Pralhad Gurung.
Similarly, Hemanta Gurung has been elected in Dagana district while Nara Bahadur Gurung left his contenders trailing behind in Chirang. Yankhu Chhiring Sherpa (Chirang district), Prem Kumar Gurung and Nanda Lal Rai (both Sarbhang district) have also been elected to Assembly seats.
Of the total of 47 constituencies, the DPT garnered a landslide victory with 44 seats. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), headed by another former Prime Minister of Bhutan, Sangey Ngedup Dorjee, who is also a maternal uncle of Bhutans king, was limited to three seats.
Although the Bhutanese Governments news portal, Kuensel Online, said that 74.4 percent voters used their franchise, as many as 102,077 Bhutanese were deprived of this right as they were denied citizenship certificates, no objection certificates and identity cards by local authorities.
According to ekantipur.com, the election was held ignoring the rights of over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees languishing in seven different camps in eastern Nepal, and hundreds of others in India. (ANI)
- Assam militants cannot set up base again: Bhutan PM Thinley (Interview) - Jan 20, 2010
- Nepal air crash probe begins, travel agent arrested - Dec 17, 2010
- Bhutan grieves with Nepal as air crash kills 22 (Second Lead) - Dec 16, 2010
- Maoists looking for bases in Assam: Gogoi - Oct 17, 2011
- Harvard scholar is frontrunner for Tibetan PM-in-exile - Nov 12, 2010
- Lhotshampas: A community that Bhutan abandoned (Comment) - Mar 27, 2011
- Nepal pledges probe as plane crash kills all 22 on board (Lead) - Dec 16, 2010
- Missing Nepal plane wreck found, all 22 feared killed - Dec 16, 2010
- Tibetans wait for their next Kalon Tripa - Apr 25, 2011
- Security alert in Bhutan after Maoists kill four rangers - Jan 01, 2009
- December crash takes toll on Nepal airline's Bhutan flights - Feb 01, 2011
- Nepal, Bhutan agree to talks on refugee homecoming - Apr 15, 2011
- Eight BSF personnel killed in Assam ambush - Mar 15, 2011
- Will not allow any anti-India groups: Bhutan PM - Jan 22, 2012
- India media team is the largest at XVIth SAARC Summit - Apr 27, 2010
Tags: assembly seats, bhutanese refugees, citizenship certificates, durga, eastern nepal, former prime minister, jigme, lal, landslide victory, local authorities, maternal uncle, nanda, nepali, ngedup, prasad, prem kumar, prime minister of bhutan, sherpa, thakur, victors