Bhutanese men wearing traditional Bhutanese men's outfits, called Gho, wait to cast their vote outside a polling station in Paro on May 31, 2013. Bhutan begins its second ever parliamentary election on Friday, after polling officials trekked for up to seven days to reach voters in the most remote corners of the Himalayan kingdom. -- PHOTO: AFP
THIMPHU, Bhutan (AFP) - Voters in Bhutan braved heavy rain and treacherous mountain paths to cast their ballots on Friday as the "land of the thunder dragon" began electing a government for only the second time.
Wearing traditional dress and sheltering under umbrellas, Bhutanese queued patiently at polling stations in the isolated Himalayan nation in the first round of voting to determine the lower house of parliament.
The centre-right Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) party, which has governed Bhutan for its first five years of democracy, beat the three other parties contesting with a 45 per cent share of the vote, officials said late Friday.
It will now go through to a final round on July 13 against the second-place People's Democratic Party, and the winners of that vote will form the next government.
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