A mature election

While the first democratic elections in 2008 signaled Bhutan’s turn into a democracy, it also came with a heavy price of political partisanship and divisions.

New fault lines opened up in a small country and society that could ill afford it.

However, since then, it must be said that every election has seen progressively more maturity and lesser divisions, best symbolized in the 2018 polls.

There is no doubt that there are a lot of big issues for the upcoming 2023 polls, but the solution here will not be to scream at each other but to come together to offer solutions.

The DNT government has had a mixed performance from the highs of how it dealt with the Pandemic under the leadership of His Majesty to the lows of a low growth economy and unprecedented migration.

The many issues affecting Bhutan should be pointed out, discussed and even criticized during the polls, but it should be done without creating divisions and enmity.

The challenges facing us are too vast and too big for us to fight among ourselves, but we must instead come together as a nation to jointly face and address it.

We are at such a critical national state that we cannot afford disunity and discord.

The DNT will get the full reckoning of its performance be it good, average or bad in the polls.

The election process should not be a time of fighting, ego, aggression, hate and anger, but it must be a nation talking to itself and thinking deeply to come up with the best options and solutions of our many predicaments. 

It is no secret that Bhutan faces multiple crises, the likes of which it has never seen before in its modern history.

However, this is also not the time to lose hope but to come together as a nation and overcome these challenges. Just like we did during the pandemic.

Everybody bears responsibility for whether the 2023 polls will offer better solutions and hope or whether it will divide and weaken us.

Leadership is not about the next election, it’s about the next generation.
Simon Sinek