A new government ..

I am glad that our first parliamentary elections went without much incident.

The Election Commission and all the organisations and individuals must be commended for the relentless work done over the past to ensure an impressive voter turn-out of about 80%. United States had an average voter turnout of around just 50% in 2000 and India had around 65.5% in 1999 ( http://www.idea.int/). Our voters were aware of the sanctity of the gift bestowed by the Golden Throne.

This election will not only be remembered as the first in our history but also for the landslide victory by DPT. There is a sense of awe among the people and (presumably self proclaimed) analysts are seeking reasons to understand what went wrong with PDP. However this is a victory not for the DPT alone but for the people of Bhutan. It is a victory for the Bhutanese. As one foreigner put it, " Congratulations .. Bhutan and Bhutanese did it. We have been trying to get it right for the past 90 years".

I hope both the parties cooperate and support each other, as has already been commited by them several times during their campaigns. As is evident from the many common principles in the manifestos of the two parties it is only sensible to work together, and working together needs no opposition.

Even if DPT has some old ministers it is for us to guess who will be holding the ministerial portfolios until they are allocated. Whoever our new ministers be I can only hope that they exercise their judgement, responsibilities and will for the benefit of the country and the citizens and not defile the trust people have placed in them.