The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The three NC candidates’ petition for the High Court to look into Sarpang NC elect Pema Tashi’s employment history was denied on May 5, 2023. The plaintiffs have not yet decided whether or not to continue their appeal.
The plaintiffs had filed an appeal with the High court on April 28, 2023, seeking to determine if the Sarpang NC election winner had ten years of work experience or not.
According to the Plaintiffs, they discovered a defect in the number of work experiences he claimed in various media outlets, and the length of time he spent studying did not match his work experience. They claimed that he must either be working or studying, which is against ECB internal policies.
They argued that it was unjust to see on what basis he was qualified and others were not.
The plaintiffs, however, did not appear to have any proof to back up their accusations. Due to ECB internal policies, they were unable to access any of the winner’s documentation to support their claims further.
Tshedrup Dorji from Sarpang who was disqualified from the NC election due to his lack of job experience. provides a comparable account of ECB internal regulations.
“I am not one of the plaintiffs,” said Tshedrup Dorji.
“However, because I was working and studying at the same time, it was not taken into account, and I was disqualified for lack of work experience, “he added.
When he queried why the internal guidelines on work experience couldn’t be made public, the director reportedly responded saying that they were just for their reference.
According to Tshedrup Dorji, “I tried getting a legal request, but then I was informed the court was also aware, and going to them is a waste of resources.” Later, he abandoned the notion of filing a complaint after being told by his friends that, despite the logic of his assertions, they might be useless.
A person must have 10 years of professional experience in order to participate in NC elections.
Contrarily, it was discovered that the ECB did not receive any requests, although it did acknowledge that during the elections it did not give the participants access to the internal guidelines.
One of the plaintiffs stated, “We put up an appeal to the high court after we filed a complaint with the ECB and found out there could be nothing done after the elections.”
The verdict, however, has not satisfied the plaintiff.
They declared, “We seek judicial clearance to support our university’s doubt, and our purpose is to cross-check if he qualifies or not. Even though the ECB has complete ability to confirm and evaluate the experience, the High Court dismissed the allegations.”
They stated that they desire access to internal guidelines so that they can be aware of the criteria used to qualify and disqualify individuals, and they claimed that doing so would increase transparency.
