March 28: The Election Commission says a mistake has been made while recording the election results from a polling station in Phuentsholing constituency in Chhukha Dzongkhag. It says because of the mistake, Rinzin Dorji of the People’s Democratic Party has been declared as the winner instead of Chencho Dorji of Druk Phuensum Tshogpa.

A news release from the Election Commission says while the election results from Pachu old School Polling station was received and recorded by the Returning Officer which was transmitted to him over the phone, it was wrongly recorded.

It says the phone message -candidate 2- 98 was recorded as 298 votes instead of 98 votes in favour of candidate 2. Rinzin Dorji of the People’s Democratic Party was candidate 2.

This resulted in 200 erroneous additional votes to Rinzin Dorji making him the winner with 3,646 votes instead of 3,446. Chencho Dorji of Druk Phuensum Tshogpa got 3,642 votes.

The news release from the Election Commission says the error was detected by the Returning Officer while compiling his report based on the hard copy of election result sheets attested by the respective counting representatives of the candidates.

It says the Election Commission deeply regrets the inconvenience by this serious lapse. It says the Chief Election Commissioner of Bhutan owns the responsibility for his lapse while the officer concerned is also being warned.

Meanwhile the People’s Democratic Party says there were irregularities in the procedure which the party will take up with the Election Commission in the next few days.