The commonly agreed reason among the nominees is that the people showed blank faces at the forum
Since the opening of Common forum for Tsirang Dzongkhag National Council (NC) nominees on 5 April, only a handful of people have understood what the six candidates spoke during the forum.
The forum in Sergithang gewog was conducted on 11 April while Barshong and Damphu Thromde are next in order.
In all this, the general electorate’s grasp was fairly better in Sergithang gewog with more than 50% of people who seemed to have understood, said the NC nominees. The forum began at 10 am in the gewog community hall and lasted for two hours since candidates spoke lesser than their allotted time. Each candidate was given 30 minutes for introduction and campaigning. Sergithang has more than 1,000 eligible voters.
“Norbugang chiwog which has about 45 households is considered furthest and people from the gewog came walking for five hours just to know who the candidates are,” said the Sergithang gup. He said, compared to 2008 NC elections, this year Tsirang Dzongkhag has more choices out of which the best will be selected for the Dzongkhag.
The weather at the venue was hot and humid, despite that more than 200 people gathered for the forum.
The Sergithang gup said most people didn’t get the nominees’ eloquently delivered Dzongkha narratives.
“I guess many people didn’t understand fully what the candidates spoke but the candidates made sure that they would explain later by visiting door-to-door for better understanding of their manifesto.”
Kilkhorthang NC nominee Shyam Basnet stressed on the purpose of taking part in the election and what he can do as an NC member. He said that only 20% of the people would have understood what they have spoken.
“But in this gewog majority of people understood what we spoke,” he said. “I must say 50% of the people understood out here.”
The Mendrelgang NC nominee Kamal Bahadur Gurung focused on rural-poverty elevation and review of existing bills. “When it comes to people’s understanding of what we spoke, almost 80% of the people are blank,” he said.
In his speech to the people he talked about proposing rural entrepreneurship bill and crop protection bill against pesticides, wild animals and urbanization, if he is elected. During the forum he also asked people to make the right choice and spoke on the importance of right choice for a better Tsirang Dzongkhag.
The former NC MP Justin Gurung brought to the forefront his five years experiences as a parliamentarian to serve the people and nation better.
When it comes to the language used for the campaigning he also feels that, only 50% of the people understood what he spoke.
He said, though he does not have enough time to explain to the people who did not understand he will explain to them in the local language when he is back to his village.Gosarling NC nominee Novin Darlami talked about his three bills which were released introduced by him in the media recently. Along with that, he talked about two additional points on encouraging tourism and encouraging agricultural marketing in Tsirang.
Although talks were delivered in the national language Dzongkha, he said more than 80% of the people must have understood what we spoke. Gosarling gewog has more than 2,000 eligible voters.
Tsirang-toed’s NC nominee Sangay Tamang said he made no promises as of now, since NC is the law-making body. He said, “About 60% of people might have understood since there are some parts of the gewog where people speak in dzongkha but it seems many people were blank and didn’t understand.”
Therefore he plans to stay for sometime in the place to give the people a recap of what he spoke during the forum in a language they understand.
Sangay said being a fresh graduate, competition will be tough, but he feels “experience doesn’t count but service to the people does. If it is only judged upon experience then youth unemployment will rise.”
He is thankful to the people from his place for support and expects the same on 23 April, the Election Day.
Tsirang Dzongkhag has a total of 20,979 eligible voters.