Lyonchhen Jigmi Y Thinley, during a press conference on July 24, suggested it was PDP who initiated the plan. But the opposition leader, Tshering Tobgay, in a media conference this week said that the initiator was in fact DPT.

“PDP was in a desperate situation and needed the fund more than DPT,” said the prime minister, adding that PDP’s secretary and finance officer had come to the DPT party office. The PM asked the party cadre to write and put up a joint proposal to the cabinet.

The opposition leader Tshering Tobgay refuted the allegation and said that he was concerned with what the prime minister had said. “The general secretary of DPT had been calling the PDP secretary saying that he is under considerable pressure from the prime minister to submit the joint proposal to the government to help the two parties with financial assistance,” he said. “The secretary general and the finance officer did visit the DPT office but it was only to sign the letter which was drafted by DPT.”

But the two general secretaries, PDP’s Lam Kezang and DPT’s Thinley Gyamtsho, told Kuensel what exactly happened and how the proposal came about.

It was during one of the personal and friendly telephonic conversations between the two general secretaries in May, when Lam Kezang expressed the tight financial situation in running the party offices, according to the secretaries. “I told Lam that I’d talk to Lyonchhen on how the parties could be helped financially,” said Thinley Gyamtsho. “After speaking with Lyonchhen, he suggested that we submit a joint proposal to the cabinet and I conveyed the message to the PDP general secretary.”

On May 30, the DPT secretary with two other party members came to the PDP office to discuss the joint proposal for state funding of political parties, according to Lam Kezang. “We also had a meeting before that and, on June 4, the DPT office faxed a draft of the joint proposal and asked me to give my comments by 10.00 am the following day,” he said.

The secretaries said that the PDP finance officer and the secretary visited the party office on June 5 to sign the proposal. The letter was then submitted to the prime minister.

During the National Assembly session, health minister Lyonpo Zangley Dukpa introduced the motion in parliament. He suggested the inclusion of a clause in the Election Bill or the Public Election Fund Bill, allowing state funding for the two political parties elected in the primary round. Everyone, including the opposition leader, supported the move.

But the general secretaries admitted that they were surprised when opposition leader Tshering Tobgay changed his position on state funding during a live TV panel discussion and at the assembly session the following day.

The prime minister also questioned, during the press conference last week, why the opposition leade,r who recommended, proposed and requested state funding, was against it after a few weeks.

“Yes, I admit that the prime minister was right. I did change my stand based on my interpretation of the constitution,” said the opposition leader, adding that the change came about after he consulted a lot of people, especially elders. “Their response was unequivocal in that the proposal of state funding was unconstitutional. No matter how open for interpretation the clause in the Constitution is, I can’t interpret it in my favour.”

The national council members, the chairman of the constitution drafting committee, Lyonpo Sonam Tobgye and election commission officials disagreed with the state fund proposal calling it unconstitutional.

The opposition leader insisted that he was not playing the blame game saying that PDP was a party to the petition. “It doesn’t matter who prepared it actually, the bottom line is that both the parties felt necessary to approach the government,” he said. But he said: “To be accused of initiating was wrong and let’s agree that it was both the parties.”

Source: http://www.kuenselonline.com