Election Bill of Bhutan adopted (Politics)

Thimphu, July 27: The joint sitting of parliament with 21 parliamentarians voting against the move on Saturday, adopted the Election Bill of Bhutan. 

While the house required 47 votes to win the two-third majority, as demanded by section 4 of Article 13 of the Constitution, only two votes had saved the parliament from declining the much-debated bill.

Out of 70 MPs in the parliament, excluding the speaker and one absentee, only 48 voted in favor while 21 were against the move. The two houses had discussed the bill about four times.

Members of the national council discussed the bill from June 18 to July 7 and forwarded it to the national assembly on July 8 with a number of amendments. The bill was then deliberated on by the national assembly from July 9 to 16 and sent back to the national council on July 21, from where it once again returned to the assembly with further changes.

Members of the parliament had claimed that the electronic voting inappropriate, as the procedure encouraged outcomes that contradicted previous discussions.

Observers said that the result was an indication that most members were not happy with the resolutions they themselves had proposed.

Having made only minor amendments during the first sitting, observers said they expected parliament to make drastic changes during the joint sitting. Many also said the session was unnecessarily prolonged, which would make it difficult for the two houses to complete the task during the scheduled two days joint sitting.

After adopting the Election Bill on Saturday, the parliament discussed the National Council Bill, which would be adopted on Monday, followed by the Parliamentarian Entitlement Bill. Bhutan News Service