Democracy is all the rage these days (what’s not to like?). We are into the sixth year of a war trying to impose democratic values on Iraqis; Pakistan is struggling to fashion itself as a democratic nation after years of military dictatorships and feudal kleptocracies; and in our own backyard, the workings of the democratic process is coming under nervous scrutiny in a hotly contested race to decide the presidential nominee of one of the major national parties. The recent uprising in Tibet reminded the world that even an oppressive and militiarily powerful regime cannot fully suppress the desire for autonomy among its "subjects." While the world’s attention has turned to the once fabled Tibetan Shangri-la (more a romantic notion in the western mind than reality) currently under the rule of Communist China, another mythical mountain kingdom in the region, impressively monikered "The Land of the Thunder Dragon," nestled amidst the Himalayan clouds has quietly gone about taking baby steps toward realizing the democratic dream.
The tiny nation of Bhutan, situated between southern China and eastern India, recently conducted its first popular election. An 80% voter turnout was remarkable. That many voters showed up at the polls because the king asked them to, is less so. As the final votes were tallied suspicion arose in some minds whether the voters actually knew what they were voting for. The fact that there was very little separating the platforms of the two contesting political factions and one prevailed in a near complete landslide has confounded observers. I suspect it had to do with the party names. The losing party has the Plain-Jane name of "People’s Democratic Party" (in English, no less). The victor is named "Druk Phuensum Tshogpa" in Bhutanese, loosely translated to the "Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party" whose English language motto is "In pursuit of gross national happiness." (Certainly beats "Hope and Change," "Ready on day one for the 3am phone call" or "100 years of war")
NEW DELHI: Orders from the palace sent the people of Bhutan rushing to the polls for their first national elections on Monday, as the once reclusive Land of the Thunder Dragon further opened its doors and joined the world’s democracies.
While turnout was heavier than in many countries more experienced with voting — nearly 80 percent by the time polls closed at 5 p.m. — the results left some analysts wondering how democracy would actually function.
Of the 47 seats in Parliament, according to provisional results from the Election Commission of Bhutan, 44 went to Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, whose name can be translated as the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party. The rival People’s Democratic Party (English is widely spoken among the Bhutanese elite), the only other party running, lost resoundingly. Its leader, Sangay Ngedup, lost his own constituency.
There were no striking differences between the platforms of the two parties, making the vastly uneven results hard to explain. "We are all caught completely off balance at this moment," Karma Ura, director of the Center for Bhutan Studies, a government-financed organization, said by telephone from Thimphu, the capital. "Functioning of democracy requires a good opposition. I don’t know what will happen now. It’s not an ideal situation."
The election was a step toward democracy, but the monarchy remains in place. King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 28, will remain head of state after the elections. Asked if voters understood the electoral process, the chief election commissioner, Kunzang Wangdi, said he had no doubt they did. "We have given the power to the voters to cast their secret ballot," he said by telephone. "They have exercised that right and duty. Everyone will have to respect that."
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