Election Bill adopted
Bhutan News Service
Thimphu, July 27
The joint sitting of parliament with 21 parliamentarians voting against the move on July 26, 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.


PM faces media, criticizes it
Bhutan News Service
Thimphu, July 27
The Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley has criticized the media for not understanding the reasons behind the proposal for state funding of the two political parties during the NA session, and for not writing in favor of it.
PM was responding to media at his office in Thimphu on July 24 regarding the state funding of political parties, recruiting resigned civil servants, MPs being abroad instead of visiting their constituencies that were hit by windstorms in May, and joining WTO.
The PM told journalists that his party DPT was in comfortable situation and there was no need of state funds. “PDP was desperate and why pay for a party that was dying? Did you ever try to find out why the government was in favor of it?” he said, adding that the PDP’s secretary and finance officer came to the party office and then he had asked them to write to him officially. PM also accused the media of blowing up the issue without analyzing the situation.
The prime minister also questioned why the media had not reported on the government remaining silent about the reemployment of PDP candidates.
On MPs not visiting constituencies that were hit by natural calamities, the prime minister said that the ministers could have done so and gained political mileage but that was not what they were after.
“The MPs not going there had to do with the fact that the National Assembly was in the process of discussing the constitution,” he said.
During the media session, the health minister Zangley Dukpa, also explained why he had to go to Geneva during such a time when people in his constituency in Pemagatsel were suffering.
In responding to a query of Bhutan joining the WTO, PM said that he was not against joint it but was against joining without knowing enough.

Bhutan to receive India's credit facility
Bhutan News Service
New Delhi, July 27
India has decided to grand a sum of Rs 400 crore to Bhutan to help meet the shortage of Indian currency in the country.
The commitment was made during Prime Minister Jigme Y Thinley's recent four-day visit to India.
As of now, the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA), the country's central bank, has managed the shortage by borrowing from the State Bank of India (SBI) at an interest rate of 10 per cent.
RMA pledged hard currency as collateral to borrow. From March until now, the central bank had borrowed about Rs 200 crore from SBI.
With more than 80 per cent of Bhutan's trade with India alone, the demand for Indian rupee has been steadily rising within the country in tandem with growing disposable incomes and increasing imports.
Central bank officials explained that rupee flows in the Bhutanese economy have demonstrated a cynical pattern that revolves around mega projects.
At the commissioning of mega projects, the economy experiences a rupee surplus and when such projects, like Chukha and Tala, wind up, the economy had faced a shortage.