DTT to submit documents for registration

… members disprove of short-term election pledges and localized promises

Wrapping the party convention, electing its president, and vice-president, and adopting the party charter, Druk Thuendral Tshogpa (DTT) is ready to register as a political party with Election Commission of Bhutan.

The party president, Kinga Tshering said the party will submit the documents to ECB by next week.

On the formation of the party, the president stressed, ‘we would like to believe Thuendrel is an expression of the deepest hopes and earnest wishes of all Bhutanese at the grassroots of the need for a political party that, in all strands, represent the people and all of their collective aspirations and humble ambitions.”

Additionally, the president says, ‘for a change, the party is an upshot of years of that very longing of communities across the country, represented by the village wise men and the learned, who disprove of short-term election pledges and localized promises. “In that sense, the journey has only just begun,” the president underlines as he speaks on the journey party’s formation. 

Speaking on the party’s ideology, the president says, it is, ‘Nation first’.

This, he said encompasses ‘the party, its candidates, coordinators, supporters and members willing to make sacrifices together realizing a progressive modern economy in the backdrop of the nation’s guiding philosophy of GNH’. “It is heartening to inform that this firm belief is an emanation of the very people in the grassroots who helped propel the party into being,” said the party president, Kinga Tshering.

In terms of ability of party leadership, the president told Bhutan TODAY: “All we can say at the moment is that, gauging from the candidates who have been meticulously selected to represent the different constituencies for Thuendrel, it emboldens us to believe we are prepared to steer the country on a progressive economic recourse anchored on the timeless values espoused in its guiding philosophy.”

In line to Political Party Rules of the Kingdom of Bhutan (2015), Druk Thuendral Tshogpa organized party convention and elected its president and vice-president on May 2.

The party’s president is Kinga Tshering, and the vice-president is Dr (PhD) Chenga Tshering.

Both the leaders are former parliamentarians.

Kinga Tshering represented the opposition party, Druk Phuensum Tshogpa as its North Thimphu constituency candidate.

Dr Chenga Tshering also represented the opposition party as its Thrimshing-Kangpara constituency, Tashigang candidate.

Additionally, the party also declared former Thimphu Thrompon as a party candidate, Kinlay Dorjee. Kinlay Dorjee is a two-termer Thrompon.

According to the Political Party Rules of the Kingdom of Bhutan (2015), to apply for political party registration, an application for registration as a political party shall be made to the Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) within one month of the formation of the party.

This, the head of the party must submit to the Commission.

Then, the Registrar of political parties shall verify and satisfy himself or herself that the party is appropriately formed after the review of its account of receipts of admissible registration and membership fees collected from the founding members for the first year.

If registered as a political party, the applicant party shall enjoy the right and privileges of a political party under the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan.

For now, the party wraps up its position as – “We stand to serve, better.”

Encapsulating the stand further, it says: “A political party is only as good as the collective aspiration and efforts of its citizens.”

In an earlier interview with Bhutan TODAY, its president said, Thuendrel, in short stands for ‘Unity’. “Thuendrel is about unity, and it is not just a clichéd unity,” said Kinga Tshering.

He elaborated that ‘it is a way of the whole grand idea of structuring process right from the household, all the way to society, all the way to the international level in line with Gross National Happiness, the overarching paradigm’.

The party has been working since the advent of democracy, said Kinga Tshering. “The movement as a whole, the party is as old as democracy in the country, the movement started in 2008,” he said.

Adding further, he said that most of their candidates have been involved in the democratic process for the last 15 years.

Additionally, Kinga Tshering also unfurls that the party candidates’ cumulative experience is also vast.

He said that some of the members have contested earlier elections, and that party supporters of other political parties have shifted their allegiance to DTT.

However, he said that the branding, strategy, and ideology are completely new for a new change.

The party expects to register by next week.

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