At Stake in this Election: 

• All 47 seats in the Bhutanese National Assembly 

National primary elections were held on 30 November 2023.  

Government Structure:  

• Chief of State: King Jigme Khesar Namgyel WANGCHUCK (since 14 December 2006) 

• Head of Government: Prime Minister Lotay TSHERING (since 7 November 2018) 

• Assembly: bicameral Parliament consisting of a 25-seat National Council ((གི་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེ་ / Gyelyong Tshogde) and a 47-seat National Assembly (ཚོགས་འདུ་ / Tshogdu) 

Electoral System:  

• The King is a hereditary monarch. 

• The Prime Minister, typically the parliamentary majority leader, is appointed by the King. 

• In the National Council, 20 members are directly elected by plurality vote in single-seat constituencies (1 for each dzongkhag), and the remaining 5 members are appointed by the King. All members serve 5-year terms.  

• In the National Assembly, all 47 members are directly elected in single-seat constituencies. A nationwide primary election is held to determine which two parties will participate in the general election. Those two parties each nominate one candidate per constituency to run in the general election. Members serve 5-year terms. 

Last Election: 

In the 2018 National Assembly election, Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) Druk won 30 seats and Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) won the remaining 17 seats. Voter turnout was 72%. 

New/Unique in this Election:  

The Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) developed a new electoral law (Rules on Elections Conduct in the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2022) that requires candidates to meet additional qualifications (anti-corruption clearances and 5-10 years of experience), requires prior ECB approval for certain political activities conducted outside of the campaign period, and increases penalties for electoral offenses.  

Information for Voters: 

Information to the general public and eligible voters regarding General Elections, 2023-24 (in English) 

Key Deadlines: 

• Candidate filing deadline: 4 November 2023  

• Voter registration deadline: 1 October 2023 

• Voters could petition to change their postal voting status by 14 December 

Main Parties in this Election: 

The following two parties received the most votes in the primary election, held on 30 November, advancing to the general election: 

• Bhutan Tendrel Party / བྷུ་ཊཱན་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཚོགས་པ (BTP) 

• Seats won in last election: 0 out of 47 

• People’s Democratic Party / མི་སེར་དམངས་གཙོའི་ཚོགས་པ (PDP) 

• Seats won in last election: 0 out of 47 

Population and Registered Voters: 

• Population: 782,460 (2022 est.) 

• Registered Voters: 496,836 (2023) 

Gender Data: 

• Female Population: 368,520 (2022 est.) 

• CEDAW Status: Signed 1980, Ratified 1981 

• Gender Quota:  No 

• Number of Female Legislators (pre-election): 8 out of 46 (17.5%) in the National Assembly and 3 out of 25 (12%) in the National Council 

• Human Development Index (HDI) Position: 0.666, Medium, Rank 127 (2021) 

• Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: 32.9 (2023) 

Disability Data: 

• CRPD Status: Signed 2010, not ratified 

• Projected population with a disability: 125,194 (2023 est.) 

IFES Resources: 

• Does IFES have a presence in Bhutan: No  

• Election Access: Yes 

• Election Judgements: Yes, 5 resources