March 26: The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) said the National Assembly elections are a clear step towards democratic transition and marks a successful and orderly change of political system to a constitutional monarchy.

Releasing their preliminary report at a press conference yesterday, the Chief Observer of the mission Javier Pomes said the voter turnout of 79.4 percent indicates a genuine commitment to participate in the elections. He said voting and counting were well conducted.

The Chief Observer of the EU EOM Javier Pomes said the election process generally met international standards for democratic elections, but fell short in certain areas.

In their preliminary report, the EU EOM said the Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) did a remarkable job but both parties commented that the ECB was overly severe in its application of the campaign regulations.

It said both BBS TV and radio gave equal access to all candidates in a very regulated manner in their election programmes and the media in general treated candidates equally.

The Chief Observer Javier Pomes said the final report containing detailed recommendations for future use will be published within two months of the completion of the entire process.

The EU EOM has been in the kingdom since February 22.