Bhutan holds second mock vote, democracy rehearsal
28 May 2007 06:02:53 GMT Source: Reuters
By Bappa Majumdar PHUENTSHOLING, Bhutan, May 28 (Reuters) - Bhutan held a second "mock election" on Monday as a final dress rehearsal for the isolated Himalayan kingdom's transition to democracy next year after a century of royal rule. The mock election, which began a month ago with four dummy parties running on imaginary manifestos, boiled down to a straight fight between the Druk (Thunder Dragon) Yellow Party and the Druk Red Party. The Yellow Party stands for the preservation of tradition and values while the Red Party advocates industrial development. "I voted for the Red, but honestly I did it for the king as he wants us to vote," 33-year-old Kezong Drukpa, dressed in a traditional red-and-golden-striped gown, said in Phuentsholing, a town on the border with India. Former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck decided to hand power to an elected government, against the will of many subjects, before passing his crown to his Oxford-educated son last December. The mock poll is meant to teach voters and officials about the election process, in a country only slowly entering the modern world. With only 51 percent of registered voters turning out for the preliminary round last month, the royal family and officials urged people to come out in huge numbers to vote on Monday. Long queues were reported from most parts of the country from early morning as neatly dressed women and men waited for their turn to cast their ballots. "It seems people are taking the final round seriously as there are people who have travelled for hundreds of kilometres to vote in their home towns," Gopilal Acharya, the editor of Bhutan Times, a private newspaper launched last year, said from the capital Thimphu. "It is a slow, but sure march towards democracy." TIGER THREAT But not everyone is happy. Thousands of ethnic Nepalis expelled from Bhutan in the early 1990s have threatened to hold protests on its border with India, and in Nepal where many live in crowded refugee camps. They want the right to return to their birthplace and take part in the democratic process, 17 years after being expelled for protesting against discrimination and in favour of democracy. Authorities said they were on alert after a threat of bomb attacks by the Bhutan Tiger Force, the militant wing of the Bhutan Communist Party, a Maoist rebel group born in the camps in Nepal in 2003. In Bhutan, the ethnic Nepalis who stayed face widespread discrimination and have to obtain security clearances for jobs and places in schools for their children, human rights groups say. Thousands have been barred from voting, refugee leaders say. "I pine for my home in Bhutan and I am feeling terrible for not being able to vote," said 33-year-old Durga Prasad, who was struck off the electoral rolls on "technical grounds". "The elections are anything but fair and Bhutan will see more trouble as the refugees attempt a comeback seriously," Laxman Rai of the Human Rights Organisation of Bhutan said.
