The Chief Election Commissioner of Bhutan at the invitation of the Director DeSuung delivered a Talk titled Bhutan’s Tryst with Electoral Democracy to the 7th Batch of De-Suung at Military Training Center, Tencholing, Wangdue on 17th of April 2013. In his address the CEC highlighted four important topics in the democratization process besides the conduct of Parliamentary Elections 2013: (1) Citizenship, Law and Rights; (2) Representative and Accountable Government; (3) Civil Society and Popular Participation; and (4) Democracy beyond the State.
During the Session, given the happy circumstance of many Bhutanese interested to contribute fresh ideas and serve election related responsibilities, he seized the opportunity to announce the introduction two initiatives of the Election Commission to take advantage of this enthusiasm and encouragement:
- Volunteers for Voter Information, Communication and Education (VVOICE); and
- Network of Bhutanese for a Democratic Bhutan (NeBDeB).
V-VOICE will contribute towards enhancing the education and promotion of higher electoral standards in the Kingdom through creation of opportunities for wider participation by all individuals interested to contribute and improve the public awareness and knowledge on electoral democracy and civic rights and duties. It will provide opportunities to all the interested individuals to be trained to serve as volunteers in extending programmes aimed at dissemination of electoral and voter education, and promoting voter participation in elections. The volunteers will be briefed and trained on the electoral procedures, process and related laws for accurate and efficient conduct of information dissemination programme in their respective communities and localities.
The NeBDeB will be designed to link and network all Bhutanese interested to discuss, contribute or share their work related to the issues and ideas that would be considered useful towards sustaining the momentum of continuous learning and innovation on matters of relevance to Bhutanese democracy, electoral process and incorporating new ideas for improvement of electoral systems and procedures in Bhutan.
We shall look forward to individuals and scholars to register for these with the Chief Electoral Training Officer at 17628143 or email at kiinnlleey@hotmail.com
Electoral Education and Training Division
Election Commission of Bhutan
To download the pdf click here
