The National Assembly is the elected

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single gr ...

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

which also comprises the

Druk Gyalpo The Druk Gyalpo (; 'Dragon King') is the head of state of the Kingdom of Bhutan. In the Dzongkha language, Bhutan is known as ''Drukyul'' which translates as "The Land of the Thunder Dragon". Thus, while kings of Bhutan are known as ''Druk ...

(Dragon King) and the National Council. It is the more powerful house.

Current National Assembly

The current National Assembly has 47 members, first elected in the inaugural

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

on March 24, 2008. Jigme Thinley's

Druk Phuensum Tshogpa Druk Phuensum Tshogpa ( dz, འབྲུག་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ།; Wylie:'' 'brug phun-sum tshog-pa''; translation: Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party; abbr. DPT) is one of the major political parties in Bhutan. It wa ...

(DPT) Party won a landslide victory, securing 45 seats. The

People's Democratic Party People's Democratic Party or ''variant thereof'', could refer to: * People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan *People's Democratic Party (Belize) *People's Democratic Party (Bhutan) * People's Democratic Party (Chile) *People's Democratic Party (Dom ...

(PDP) won the other two, but its leader,

Sangay Ngedup ''Lyonpo'' Sangay Ngedup (born 1 July 1953) was Prime Minister of Bhutan from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2005 to 2006. Biography Sangay Ngedup was born in Nobgang village in Punakha. He is the second child and eldest son in a family of thr ...

, lost the election in his

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

. Under the 2008 Constitution, Article 12, section 1, the National Assembly consists of a maximum of 55 members directly elected by the citizens of constituencies within each ''

Dzongkhag The Kingdom of Bhutan is divided into 20 districts ( Dzongkha: ). Bhutan is located between the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and India on the eastern slopes of the Himalayas in South Asia. are the primary subdivisions of Bhutan. They po ...

'' (District). Under this single-winner voting system, each constituency is represented by a single National Assembly member; each of the 20 ''Dzongkhags'' must be represented by between 2–7 members. Constituencies are reapportioned every 10 years (Art. 12, § 2). The National Assembly meets at least twice a year (Art. 12, § 5), and elects a Speaker and Deputy Speaker from among its members (Art. 12, § 3). Members and candidates are allowed to hold

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

affiliation. The 2013 National Assembly election resulted in large increase in percentage of PDP members, who will hold 32 seats to the DPT's 15 when the new assembly convenes.

History

The National Assembly was originally decreed in 1953 by

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. The National Assembly began as a unicameral parliament within the King's framework for democratization. In 1971, King Jigme Dorji empowered the National Assembly to remove him or any of his successors with a two-thirds majority. The procedure for abdication remains a part of Bhutan's Constitution of 2008, with the addition of a three-fourths majority in a joint sitting of

(i.e., including the National Council) to confirm the involuntary abdication as well as a national referendum to finalize it. (Art. 2)

Electoral system

The 47 members of the National Assembly are elected from single-member constituencies. Primary elections are held in which voters cast votes for parties. The top two parties are then able to field candidates in the main round of voting, in which members are elected using

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast the ...

Speakers

Complete list of speakers of the National Assembly.

Constituencies

The National Assembly, the lower of the Parliament of Bhutan, consists Members of Parliament (MPs). Each MP represents a single geographic constituency. Currently, there are 47 National Assembly constituencies. National Assembly constituencies are distributed among the ''dzongkhags'' in proportion to their registered voter population as recommended by the

Delimitation Commission The Delimitation commission or Boundary commission of India is a commission established by the Government of India under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act. The main task of the commission is redrawing the boundaries of the vari ...

, provided that "no Dzongkhag shall have less than two more than seven National Assembly constituencies." Gelegphu (NA1301) constituency has the highest number of registered voter population with 16,283 registered voters; Khatoed_Laya (NA0402) constituency has the lowest number of registered voter population with 966 registered voters. Out of the 20 ''dzongkhags'' of Bhutan, Trashigang, with five constituencies, has the highest number of National Assembly constituencies. Samtse, with four constituencies, has the second highest number of National Assembly constituencies.

Mongar Mongar (Dzongkha: མོང་སྒར) is a town and the seat of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. it had a population of 3502. Mongar is on the road from Thimphu to Trashigang. It is one of the oldest educational hubs of the country. It h ...

and Pema Gatshel, with three constituencies each, share the third highest position. All of the other 16 ''dzongkhags'' have two constituencies each. The table below lists the 47 National Assembly constituencies with the name of the ''dzongkhag'' they are in, the number of constituent '' gewogs'', and the number of registered voters.

Current National Assembly

History

Electoral system

Speakers

Constituencies

See also

Notes

References

External links