A woman gets her finger marked at a polling booth in Bhutan on Saturday. (PTI)

Jaigaon, April 22: Yellow and Red have emerged as the ruling colours in the first phase of Bhutan’s mock polls.

The Bhutan election commission had created four mock parties — Yellow, Red, Blue and Green — for the elections to 47 seats. The trial run of the actual event to be held next year, however, did not have any candidates representing the parties.

The Druk Yellow Party with 44.3 per cent of the votes (55,531) bagged the top spot.

The other party to qualify for the second round was the Druk Red Party, which got 20.38 per cent votes (25,542).

The Red party edged out the Druk Blue Party, which got 20.35 per cent votes (25,508). The Green party was at the bottom of the list with 14.97 per cent votes (18,757).

The manifesto of the Red party promised unity and preservation of Bhutanese traditions, cultures and values.

The country’s poll officials gave themselves a pat on the back.

“We have passed the first hurdle comfortably, though we had a few problems. Polling, though, was a little less than we had expected,” said Bhutan’s chief election commissioner Kunzang Wangdi. “We hope to work upon the campaign to get more people to vote in the second phase of the polls on May 28.”

Wangdi said yesterday’s mock elections, which were held in 860 booths in 20 districts, had several observers from India and abroad.

“Two senior officials from the Election Commission of India, S.R. Ladhar and Rakhi Gupta, were here. Nicolas Rosselini of the United Nations Development Programme and three of his colleagues also monitored the process,” Wangdi said. “They were all satisfied with the proceedings.”

In the next phase, the Bhutan election commission will choose “candidates” from among students above the age of 18, who will “contest” the final polls to the national Assembly, along with the Yellow and Red parties.