PDP listed on ECB website
The Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) has published the list of registered members of the two political parties on their website and said that those, whose names are not on the list, are not ‘registered’ members of the political parties.
This comes at a time when thousands of people had filled the membership registration forms and felt obliged to vote for the party whose forms they had filled. Chief election commissioner, Dasho Kunzang Wangdi, said that, by just filling the registration forms, one was not a ‘registered’ member, but to be a ‘registered’ member, one had to pay the political party a registration or a membership fee.
The commission also asked the two political parties to update their list of registered members and submit it to ECB.
As of yesterday, ECB listed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) with 113 registered members and the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa with 210 registered members.
Chief election commissioner, Dasho Kunzang Wangdi, said that the thousands of others, who are not reflected on the list but claim to be members of a party, are just party supporters and not registered members.
However, Dasho Kunzang Wangdi said that both parties are in the process of updating their lists and the number of registered members for the parties would increase. “When the list is submitted to ECB, the names will immediately be added to the list of registered members,” he said.
DPT has submitted a fresh list of registered members to ECB and, according to a party member, they have registered about 1,150 members, using the revised registration forms, and are in the process of further updating the list.
PDP is also updating their list and, according to the party spokesperson, the number of registered members is vastly higher than that maintained by the ECB. “We’d circulated the new forms and are collecting them at the moment. We’ll be submitting the list to the ECB very soon,” said PDP spokesperson, Tashi Tsering.
ECB had also advised both parties to register members in the revised Registration Forms, where there is an undertaking to be signed by a person stating that they have joined on their own free will, to ensure that no one is forced to become a member.
But filling up a registration form to register with a party is not a binding commitment on a voter to vote for that particular party during the election, according to an election official. He explained that a registered member of a political party is free to vote for another party or a candidate, adding that voters should know that voting would be done in closed compartments.
“The political party or the candidate will only know whether the voter came to vote or not, but they’ll never know who he/she has voted for,” said the election official.
Election commission officials said that ECB would be getting the updated list and publishing it on their website to let the public know the latest membership strength of the two political parties.
[Source: Kuensel Newspaper]
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