The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Of the 10 incumbents who contested only two made it back
In the 2013 National Council (NC) elections, of the 18 contesting incumbents a total of six made it back which is around 34 percent of the contesting incumbents.
In the 2018 NC elections of the 12 contesting incumbents a total of five made it back which is around 42 percent of the contesting incumbents coming back.
This time around of the 10 contesting incumbents only two made it back which means the lowest ever return rate of 20 percent.
Only the incumbents from Chukha, Sangay Dorji, and Paro, Ugyen Tshering, made it back and both won due to their strong connect with local people, approachable nature and good public relations.
The first shocker was that four incumbent candidates of Gasa, Punakha, Dagana and Haa who were considered to be very popular and even very active in the NC lost in surprise losses.
Gasa’s incumbent Dorji Khandu had turned into a social media star and the darling of the public when he took on the National Council Chairman Tashi Dorji over increasing the House Rent Allowance for support staff of S3 and below.
He had tried to correlate it in section 16 of the pay bill on Communication Allowance by trying to say he does not support it and tried to relate it to why the HRA for the support staff was not increased more.
The Chairman had only wanted him to speak on the new section 16 and so when the Gasa MP refused to sit down the Chairman asked him to leave the session.
In the end he lost against the relatively much lower profile Tshering both in the postal ballots and the EVM getting a total of 806 votes against Tshering’s 966 votes.
Another major surprise was the loss of incumbent Lhaki Dolma from Punakha. She had an active profile in the NC and did very well in her debate apart from having a large following on social media where she broadcast her slick campaign videos.
Lhaki being one of the few contesting women NC’s also carried the hopes of women voters who wanted more women representation.
Her popularity among the urban voters were visible with her getting the highest postal ballot votes at 1,191 votes compared to the winner Namgay Dorji who got 876 postal votes.
However, Namgay Dorji did much better at the local level getting 2,440 EVM votes compared to Lhaki’s 1,652 EVM votes.
The third surprise loss was the Haa incumbent Ugyen Namgay who also had an active profile in the NC and was an active speaker.
In his case he got higher postal votes at 661 compared to his rival Dago Tsheringla who got 636 postal votes. However, the final decision was made in the EVM where Ugyen only got 1,440 votes compared to Dago Tsheringla with 2,054 EVM votes.
It was a similar story for Dagana’s incumbent Surjaman Thapa an eloquent and active NC MP who gave a close fight in postal votes to the winner Birendra Chimoria but was left far behind when it came to EVM votes.
Incumbent Sonam Pelzom from Mongar came second out of seven candidates.
Even though Pemagatshel has a history of having the same NC MP for its the first and second Parliament it did not re-elect its incumbent Choining Dorji who came second out of three candidates. It was a landslide win for Jamyang Namgyal with 7,149 votes.
Incumbent Karma Gyeltshen from Trashiyangtze came fourth out of five candidates.
Incumbent Anand Rai came fifth out of nine candidates in Sarpang.
The mood for change was so strong that even well recognized former MPs did not have a chance.
In Thimphu former NC MP from 2013 to 2018 Nima Gyaltshen did not make it.
Former NA DPT MP and Deputy Speaker Yangku Tshering Sherpa from 2008 to 2013 who contested from Tsirang came third out of six candidates.
Former NA PDP MP Dophu Drukpa from 2013 to 2018 who contested from Punakha came fourth out of the five candidates.
The change also comes in the backdrop of the fact that the voter turnout for the fourth NC elections is the highest ever at 54.64 percent which means larger numbers of people coming out to vote even with the more limited numbers of postal ballots and no postal facilitation booth.
In 2008 the turnout was 53 percent, in 2013 it was around 45 percent which improved to 54.28 percent in 2013.
While the National Council and National Assembly are two very different elections with different issues, the NC elections of 2013 and 2018 which showed most incumbents being shown the door was followed by NA elections months later where the ruling governments lost despite being favorites to win.
The latest NC results also show that Bhutanese voters have not changed with a high level of anti-incumbency and tendency to change known faces and especially so this time around.
While the NC elections are more about legislations with no executive role, the elections took place at a time when the country is recovering from the economic impacts of pandemic, the economy is not doing well all across and there is a mass migration of youth and professionals.
The exit of the two women incumbents from Punakha and Mongar now leaves only one woman NC in the upper house from Zhemgang in the form of the newly elected Tshering Tshomo.
The total registered voters were 485,811 of which 236,739 were male and 249,072 were female.
The total numbers of votes cast were 265,441 of which 130,636 were male and 134,805 were female.
A total of 168,869 EVM votes were cast and 96,72 postal votes were cast.
Interestingly, more EVM voters were female at 87,713 female voters compared to 81,156 male voters. In the case of postal ballots, the male voters had a slight edge 49,480 votes compared to 47,092 for females.
The Election Petition period of 10 working days starts from 21 April and shall end on 5.p.m. of 5th May 2023.
