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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Government using CDG for political gains?

First the government conceived and bulldozed CDG through DPT-dominated parliament. Now they are using local governments to decide the fate of CDG. Our government is very clever, let us not discount that and give them credit. However, we need to critique and analyse these issues and facts:

1. Is CDG constitutional?
Elections Commission of Bhutan (ECB) had filed a written complaint against its adoption to the prime minister. ECB reasoned that CDG would distort the level playing fields for political parties and would interfere with free and fair elections. NC has submitted this matter to His Majesty the King. Now that Supreme Court is in place, shouldn't the matter be put upto it to interpret the constitutionality of the CDG.

2. Does the local government understand what is at stake?
Without understanding the bigger picture of democracy and how it affects free and fair elections, I would not be surprised if all or most of the local governments in 205 geogs vote for CDG. An independent study and survey may be required to find out if the issues in contention are understood by the stakeholders who, it seems would, decide the fate of CDG. Are our local governments aware of how CDG has been received in other countries and how it has aided corrupt activities that would take away chunks of resources from development activities.

3. Why can't all activities be planned or why can't LGs be empowered to spend the resources?
If local governments require additional resources for unplanned activities in their geogs, government could ensure local government's access to the resource kit instead of constituting CDG that has not worked in several countries to take roots in our country.

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