The home ministry says people who have not been able to renew their citizenship identity cards (CID) need not worry or fear over not being able to vote in the upcoming parliamentary election.
They can use their old CID cards to vote. Home Minister Dawa Gyeltshen confirmed this at Meet the Press session yesterday.
“They will have the old CID cards with them and we have discussed with ECB that, whether it is a new or old CID card, as long as they provide it, it will be considered for elections,” the minister said.
A statement issued by the ministry later also reads that for the upcoming election, as long as people are found registered in their electoral roll, the validity of CID card will have no bearings.
“This is because the data for the electoral roll are provided by the Department of Civil Registration and Census and accordingly they are issued with VIPC,” the statement read.
The home ministry also underlined that it is the validity of the card and not the citizenship per se. The expiry of the card does not change the status of citizenship. “Therefore, the question of depriving public of other benefits needs to be questioned further,” wrote the ministry.
The issue of CID cards arose after people in Zhemgang expressed concerns over the processing times. The people worried they would be left without CID cards, which they feared might prevent them from voting.
On the processing times, the home ministry says with thousands of applications for fresh CID cards as well as for renewal and replacement across all 20 dzongkhags, it is “beyond the scope of the ministry to cater the services immediately and on time as expected”.
Processing CID, the ministry, says involves huge manpower, resources and proper co-ordination among gewogs, dzongkhags and the ministry.
The ministry says the Department of Civil Registration and Census has been working round the clock to deliver the services in their best capacities despite limited manpower.
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