Top Royalist Party Wins Election In Bhutan
One of the two popular royalist groups has been looking for more power and now they have taken over the first of the parliamentary elections that was being held in the Himalayan kingdom. The Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party was able to grab 44 out of 47 seats in the new parliament stated the Election Commisioner – Kunzang Wangdi. The People’s Democratic Party won the remaining three seats.
Turnout was slightly more than 79 percent of the 320,000 registered voters, Wangdi said. Even in remote corners of the largely rural country — in tiny hamlets where voting machines were delivered by yak — the election went smoothly, officials said. The vote ended more than a century of absolute monarchy in the mountainous land long known as a quirky holdout from modernity, allowing television and the Internet only in 1999. The election came with a twist: It was the king, not the people, who pressed for democracy. “His Majesty is like our father. We all prefer our father,” said Karma Tsheweng, a 35-year-old mechanic.
But Tsheweng and hundreds of thousands of others nonetheless lined up at polling stations across the Land of the Thunder Dragon to vote Monday, excited at getting to try something new but nervous about what may happen after they’ve traded their Precious Ruler for politicians. The country of about 600,000 people has prospered under royal rule. Its fast-growing economy is slowly lifting many people out of poverty and nearly everyone has access to schools and hospitals.