DCT looks at merger or deregistration if it does not contest

While parties like the DNT, BKP and even established ones like PDP and DPT have been launching candidates, carrying out party activities and generally staying in the public eye as the 2018 polls approach, the Druk Chirwang Tshogpa (DCT) has been very quite.

The reason for this low profile is becoming apparent as the DCT meets over the weekend to decide the future course of its party.

The DCT President Lily Wangchuk said that there are three options open before the executive committee of the party.

She said the first option is to contest for the 2018 polls but she said that for such a decision to be taken the big challenge is the lack of state funding of Nu 130,000 per candidate. She said that the party would have to see if it is possible at all to raise such money for the candidates and if not so then if the candidates can fund themselves.

Lily said that in the event such funds cannot be raised then it would not provide a level playing field for the DCT.

With such challenges the second option that DCT would consider is to deregister itself as a political party and not take part in the 2018 polls leaving the field with one less player for the 2018 polls.

The third option according to the President is to merge DCT with another existing party.

The President in the past has said that she had been approached by two political parties to merge with them.

The DNT in 2016 made an open offer for merger to the DCT and also the BKP as way of consolidating against the established players of PDP and DPT. The BKP publicly turned down such a proposal while the DCT President at the time said she was open to all options and saw sense in uniting against established players.

The DCT President said that she had, until recently, been attending to some personal commitments and had not got much time for party work but that she was now looking into it seriously.

When asked about rumors that she would be joining one of the established parties as a senior candidate, Lily said that she would never abandon her party and any possible move to join another party would be together with her whole party.

In the 2013 polls DCT securing around six percent of the votes which fell below the 10 percent mandated by the ECB to get election funding. If her party and contests in 2018 without any funds and gets less then 10 percent then her party would be deregistered.

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