With party politics penetrating deep into the villages local governance is feeling the impact of intense politicking in rural Bhutan.

In Gelephu for instance, gewog tshogpas (assistants to gups) are saying that it is becoming difficult to organize any official meetings with people confused between meetings organised by party tshogpas and official meetings called by the gup. “When we inform people to gather for a meeting, they ask which party meeting it is,” said the Serzhong tshogpa, Ugyen Tshering. “For them, meetings now mean either PDP’s or DPT’s meeting.”

Another gewog tshogpa said that people in his village only know the tshogpa meetings as meeting for Sangay or Jigmi’s party.

Gewog tshogpas attribute the emerging problems to the meeting boycotting trends started after party politics penetrated deep into rural areas. “People side with parties without logic and reasoning and refrain from attending meetings of the other party,” said another gewog tshogpa.

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