Bhutan Observer: Thimphu 14 September 2007 As political fever grips the countryside, local government leaders are walking a thin line between partisanship and neutrality.

The constitution and the election rules mandate local government leaders, gups, mangmis and tshogpas, to be apolitical. But with politics brewing in all corners, they find it a lot harder to comply and say that it is easier said than done.

The Radhi Gup in Trashigang, Samdrup, said that the nature of the job and the prevailing situation made it very difficult for them to remain apolitical. “We are humans and it is natural to have preferences.” He added that he was contemplating joining a political party after his term as the gup expires after three months.

Recently, in a gewog zomdue (public gathering) in Trashi Yangtse, the gup reportedly told the people at the conclusion of the meeting that it would be better not to attend the talk by a forthcoming political aspirant. A party worker of the candidate said that the gup was misleading the people by aligning himself with the other party.

“The gup is not remaining apolitical,” said a resident and added that the gup was an influential person in the gewog and whatever he said carried weight.

There are also several informal reports that many local leaders have already affiliated themselves to political parties and are working for the party Directly or indirectly.

In Dagana, a gup is reported to be doing the ground work for a party candidate who is closely related to him. According to a source, the candidate is on a familiarisation tour and was seen visiting houses with the gup.

An observer in one of the gewogs in Trashigang told Observer that the gup of his gewog was working for a political party. “The gup is discreetly and indirectly working for a political party,” he said.

But both the political parties, PDP and DPT, deny having any local leaders working directly or indirectly for them. “Even if the local leaders are interested to work for the party we tell them to resign first,” said PDP spokesperson Tashi Tshering.

While many gups told Observer that it was difficult to remain apolitical with their responsibilities and under the current situation, some gups disagreed. The Phongmey Gup in Trashigang, Dorji Wangchuk said that his duty was to inform and create awareness about democracy and the electoral process but not to influence people and take sides with political parties.

“It is not hard to remain apolitical if you do your duty sincerely,” he said. As per the election rules most of the dzongdas have briefed the local leaders to remain apolitical.

The Dagana Dzongda, Gholing Tshering, said that the dzongkhag has been keeping strict vigilance to ensure that local leaders remain apolitical. Punakha Dzongda, Dawala, said that since the political parties are just familiarising themselves at the moment, the issue is not very pertinent.

He said that it will be more important to regulate it when parties start campaigning. The earlier version of the draft constitution stated that “candidates for election to local governments may belong to political parties or be independent candidates”.

It was however revised in the latest version which says that they have to be apolitical.