Political Parties: In reviewing the documents aspiring political parties have filed in for registration, election commission officials are ensuring “they fulfill all the legal requirements”.
“As long as they qualify under the law, no one can be denied,” chief election commissioner, Dasho Kunzang Wangdi, said.
But the commission has always insisted those forming parties not just to have candidates from all constituencies, but to comprise those, who qualify to be “national level leaders”, if elected.
While applying for registration, the law requires aspiring groups to submit some party details, including names of office bearers and party charter, but nothing else that would help commission determine whether the candidates can lead the nation.
More so, it is only after submitting the “letter of intent” to contest the elections, that’s once the party is registered, that parties need to submit the names of candidates they are fielding.
The candidates nominated then will be scrutinised by concerned returning officers, who will, among others, ensure the candidate meets the age, has a formal university degree, is contesting just one seat and so on.
In working towards fulfilling registration requirements, those working to form political parties were faced with enormous challenge to find “suitable” candidates.
On the contrary, there were those, who pointed out, as long as they did some groundwork to meet requirements stated in the law, anyone could make it past the commission’s vetting process.
“There’s no way the election commission can stop those applying for registration on the ground that they have lousy candidates,” a private consultant, preferring anonymity, said.
But some observers have stressed that an instrument to quality check political parties should be put in place. Otherwise, they said, the country could land up with “many but average” political parties.
“If not, they should make criteria stringent, and qualify what it means to produce good political parties,” said one.
Others said it should be totally left to the voters to decide.
After all, the law does mention a party failing to secure at least 10 percent of total votes, at two successive primary rounds of elections, will have its name totally removed from the register of political parties.
However, there are those, who express concerns on having to address the issue right from the initial stages.
“What if voters have to pick from “not so great” choices of parties?” one said. “It would be too late by then.”
Dasho Kunzang Wangdi said, as allowed by the law, they could only lay down the minimum, and ensure an atmosphere and environment that all interested could have a level playing field.
In claiming that there was enough filtering mechanism in place, he said, however, that they expected emerging political parties to be responsible, manned by responsible people.
“They shouldn’t, by any means, think that they could take shortcuts because, as much as the small system has drawbacks, it’s also a strength in a small system that anything can be seen,” he said.
“Partisan politics in Bhutan is a serious business and, unlike other countries, here, the scope is such that, if a party is formed, it’s done so because you want to be in Parliament,” he said.
Back in 2008, during the first parliamentary elections, Bhutan People United Party was the only party disqualified from registration, on the grounds that “it was out of tune with aspirations of the Constitution”.
Dasho Kunzang Wangdi said it was the same rules applied.
“What you try to project yourself as one, and what you are really has to be compatible,” he said, adding, claiming to be a national party, but without the manifestations of being one, was a problem.
However, he said, in the end, it was the people of Bhutan, who would be the judge.
“They have proven that they are a good judge,” he said.
By Kesang Dema
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