Security measures for free, safe and fair elections

With just three days left for the general round of elections, police officials in Lhuentse are taking every possible preventive measure to ensure nothing goes wrong in the upcoming elections.

The police personnel, who are on election duty in Lhuentse, gathered yesterday where they were instructed on the dos and don’ts by the Election Security Officer (ESO) Lieutenant Colonel Phub Gyaltshen.

During the briefing, the ESO said with success of the National Council (NC) and the primary round of National Assembly (NA) elections, he expected that the NA general elections will also be a success without any hindrance.

Speaking to the gathering, the ESO said that the police personnel deployed at the various polling stations should be on alert, and if anything goes wrong with regards to the election, the matter should be immediately reported to the presiding officer of the concerned polling stations and also to the senior police officers on duty.

The ESO said that once police personnel reach their respective polling stations, they should be careful with what they do and be polite with the voters.

The ESO also instructed the police personnel to be extra careful with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) while taking and bringing it back after the election is over.

They were also asked to keep a proper watch on the party tshogpas during the Poll Day and to check on the voters, whether they are drunk or not, etc.

Voters must be frisked properly and should not be carrying anything except for their voter cards (VPIC) and identity card (CID), these were the instructions passed on to the police personnel during the gathering.

The voters coming to cast for their vote should be on first-come-first basis while the importance should be given to the old age people, disabled people, and also the mothers with babies.

The police personnel were notified that no foreigners should be allowed to take pictures within 100 meters of the polling station.

As a preventative measure, starting yesterday, Lhuentse police along with the one of the returning officer have started checking vehicles from Autsho gewog.

Explaining the reason for such checking, the ESO said with the election around the clock, anything is possible like bribing voters, distributing phone voucher cards, carrying arms and ammunitions and explosive devices, etc.

“To ensure such activities are not carried out, checking of the vehicles is conducted, as we never know what might happen,” the ESO said.

He also said that police will take every possible measure to ensure fair and safe election.

Police personnel from three dzongkhags are in Lhuentse for election securities. They are accompanied by four senior officers including the officer in-charge of Lhuentse police station.

The police personnel will leave for their respective polling stations two to three days ahead of the Poll Day.

Lhuentse has 37 polling stations with two constituencies, Gangzur – Minjay and Menbi –Tsenkhar.

The candidates are People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) Lobzang Dorji, 25, and Druk Phuensum Tshogpa’s (DPT) Karma Rangdol, 60, from the Gangzur- Minjay constituency.

For the Menbi-Tsenkhar constituency the PDP candidate is Yeshi Dorji and the DPT candidate is Tshering Tenzin.

Lhuentse has a total of 14,389 eligible voters.