Royalists win election in Bhutan

THIMPHU (Bhutan)—Election officials say a royalist party has swept the first parliamentary elections in the secluded Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Officials say the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party has taken 44 of the 47 seats in the new parliament. The group is seen as the more royalist of the two parties seeking power.
Turnout was slightly more than 79 percent for an election that ends more than a century of absolute monarchy. The secluded Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan was on its way to becoming the world's newest democracy Monday, as voters finished casting ballots to select a parliament and end more than a century of absolute monarchy.
But like much else in the mountainous land — long known as a quirky holdout from modernity, allowing television and the Internet only in 1999 — Monday's vote 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 election commission said that by 11 a.m., 30 percent of about 320,000 registered voters had cast ballots. Polling closed at 5 p.m. Even in remote corners of the largely rural country — in tiny hamlets where voting machines were delivered by yak — elections were going smoothly, officials said earlier Monday.
This was not a vote against the much-loved king of Bhutan or a century of royal rule — many people had said they were reluctant to embrace democracy, and the winner of the elections, Jigmi Thinley, was himself a staunch royalist. But the scale of his victory, winning 44 of the 47 seats on offer according to provisional results announced by the election commission, sent subtle messages which will reverberate around this deeply traditional and conservative land. “It is truly amazing,” said Palden Tshering, spokesman for Thinley’s Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT). “The people really have made the decision.” The present king’s uncle Sangay Ngedup even lost in his own constituency. If the king had to stand aside, the people of Bhutan seem to be saying, they are not sure they want his many relatives by marriage to take over.
“They have given the government to the public now,” said one voter who declined to be named, in a country still not used to criticism of the elite or political discourse. “The youth must have chosen.” The winner, Thinley, was a former prime minister under royal rule, a man closely associated with gross national happiness, the former, fourth king’s idea that economic development be balanced by respect for traditions and the environment. His team included two other former prime ministers and two ex-finance ministers. “People want stability,” said Tshering. “It is all down to the experience of our party at the executive level. The DPT’s motto, “Growth with equity and justice,” may also have gone down well in a country where a quarter of the population still live below the poverty line, voters said.
Bhutan’s two political parties say they had never wanted democracy — the idea was thrust upon them by their fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who abdicated in favor of his son two years ago. The fifth king, the 28-year-old Oxford-educated Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, had urged all his people to exercise their franchise in a statement issued at the weekend, and the Bhutanese people do not ignore a royal command.
Turnout was recorded at 79.4 percent, with more than 250,000 people casting their votes. Early in the morning, long queues formed at polling stations near the capital Thimpu. Sad to see the king stand aside, many people said they were warming to the idea of democracy. “I am happy, excited and worried all at the same time,” said 24-year-old office worker Chimi Lam, dressed in a green silk jacket and ankle-length skirt at a polling station at Batesa primary school overlooking the pine-clad Thimpu valley.

—Agencies