Democracy by Command
The Bhutanese electorate is voting because they have no choice, between two parties without a disagreement, and to retain as much of the ancien regime as possible. Just last year, some Bhutanese believed democracy did not fit the Buddhist kingdom.
According to a quote in a CNN report, "It's not that the people of Bhutan don't want democracy. They want monarchy more," Dorji said. "Monarchy has been a success story in this country. We've always had very good kings."
And, there's a darker side.
In 1990, tens of thousands of ethnic Nepalis were forced out of Bhutan after protesting against the imposition of national dress and the closure of Nepali language schools. More than 100,000 now live in crowded camps inside Nepal.
A similar number still live in southern Bhutan, but exiled groups say tens of thousands have been denied identity cards – and thus voting rights – making »a mockery» of the election.
»The strategy is to depopulate people of Nepali origin from the country,» Narad Adhikari of the Druk National Congress, an exile group, said in Kakarvitta, on the India-Nepal border. »If they don't have voting rights, their citizenship is in danger.»
Rebel groups, with recruits largely drawn from the refugee camps, have emerged in the past year and have threatened to disrupt the polls. They have detonated 11 bombs inside Bhutan this year, killing at least one person.
Now, that sounds like a controversy worthy of the people's decision.
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