The All People’s Party (APP) has made a formal complaint to the Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) on how other political parties were forcing people in rural Bhutan to register and become party members.

“It is a national issue and we decided to submit a written complaint before the formal party registration began,� said the APP spokesperson. “If this trend continues there would be no need for a voting process,� said the spokesperson. “The election results could be declared depending on the number of people registered with the party.�

In the complaint letter submitted to the ECB on June 28 the APP has said that eligible voters in the villages who had already registered with a party view the registration forms as some sort of a binding agreement.

“They fear that there might be personal implications if they support or register with any other parties,� he said. “The public is not getting the right message and ECB should do something about it.�

The party spokesperson also said that it had been almost a month since a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) member was caught red handed for making people fill party forms in Lhuentse on mock election day but the ECB had done nothing about it.

A PDP spokesperson who spoke to Kuensel said that since the parties had not formally registered, most of the things done so far by the party were unofficial. “A lot of things related to these forms were done in an unofficial manner and we don’t have any comments on it,� the spokesperson said.

The ECB in response to the APP’s complaint said that it had no authority to act because the parties had not formally registered. According to ECB, the parties do not exist until the official registration.

The APP spokesperson said that they submitted the letter because they wanted ECB to initiate an awareness programme informing the public that they do not have to register with a party and they could elect people of their choice. Source: Kuenselonline