The Parliament of Bhutan ( dz, རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་ཁང་ ''gyelyong tshokhang'') consists of the

King of Bhutan 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 ...

together with a bicameral

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 ...

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

: Art. 1, § 3; Art. 10 This bicameral parliament is made up of an upper house, the National Council and a lower house, the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

: Art. 11; Art. 12 The current parliamentary framework replaced the

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

Tshogdu The Tshogdu (Dzongkha: ཚོགས་འདུ་; Wylie: ''tshogs-'du''; "(Bhutanese Grand National) Assembly") was the unicameral legislature of Bhutan until 31 July 2007. The legislature had a total of 150 members. Dasho Ugen Dorje was the la ...

in 2007, with the first members taking seats in 2008.

Composition of Parliament

The

National Council of Bhutan The National Council is the upper house of Bhutan's bicameral Parliament, which also comprises the Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King) and the National Assembly. Similar to the Rajya Sabha of neighbouring India and the upper houses of other bicameral We ...

is the

upper house An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restric ...

, or house of review in the bicameral legislature. It consists of 25 members: one directly elected from each of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) and 5 appointed by the King under election laws. The National Council meets at least twice a year. The membership elects a Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson from its number. Members and candidates of the National Council are prohibited from holding

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.

: Art. 11 The National Assembly of Bhutan is the lower house. It consists of a maximum of 47 members directly elected by the citizens of constituencies within each dzongkhag (district) according to election laws. Each constituency is represented by one National Assembly member; each of the 20 Dzongkhags must be represented by between 2–7 members. Constituencies are reapportioned every 10 years. The National Assembly meets at least twice a year, and elects a Speaker and Deputy Speaker from among its members. Members and candidates are allowed to hold

affiliation.

: Art. 12 The Constitution sets forth the procedure of the formation of the executive branch and its ministries, including the post of

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

, according to Parliamentary electoral results. The King recognizes the leader or nominee of the party that wins the majority of seats in the

as the Prime Minister.

: Art. 17, § 1 The Prime Minister is limited to two terms of office.

: Art. 17, § 2 Other Ministers are appointed from among National Assembly members by the King on advice of the Prime Minister.

: Art. 17, § 3 All Ministers must be natural-born citizens of Bhutan, and there is a limit of two Ministers from any one Dzongkhag.

: Art. 17, §§ 4, 5 The

fulfills further parliamentary duties by reviewing and assenting to bills in order to enact

Bhutanese legislation Bhutanese legislation is created by the bicameral Parliament of Bhutan. Either the upper house National Council, the lower house National Assembly, or the Attorney General may author bills to be passed as acts, with the exception of money and fin ...

, and when necessary, by initiating national referendums under election laws.

: Art. 13; Art. 35

Parliamentary powers and procedure

The National Council and National Assembly operate under a framework of enumerated substantive powers and duties under the

. In addition, the procedural framework of each body is codified independently in subsequently enacted

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...

: the National Council Act and the National Assembly Act. The Acts define operating procedure (such as

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and voting) and delegation of duties to committees much like bylaws; the Acts themselves also provide some incidentally related substantive law, such as offenses and penalties for officeholders.

Legislative powers of Parliament

Foremost among the powers and duties of Parliament is the passing of bills. Either the upper house National Council, the lower house

, or the Attorney General may author bills to be passed as acts, with the exception of money and financial bills, which are the sole purview of the National Assembly.

: Art. 13, § 2

Legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...

must be presented bicamerally, at times in joint sittings of the National Council and

, however bills may pass by default without vote when none is conducted before the close of the present session.

: Art. 13, §§ 8, 9 When a bill has been introduced and passed by one house, it must present the bill to the other house within thirty days from the date of passing, and the bill may be passed during the next session of Parliament.

: Art. 13, § 5 In the case of budget bills and urgent matters, a bill must be passed in the same session of Parliament.

: Art. 13, § 5 Bills are ultimately subject to veto and modification by the King, however the King must assent to bills resubmitted after joint sitting and deliberation by the National Council and National Assembly.

: Art. 13, §§ 10, 11

Other powers of Parliament

Parliament has the sole authority to alter Bhutan's international territorial boundaries, and internal Dzongkhag and Gewog divisions, with the consent of at least 75% of the total number of members (currently 54).

: Art. 1, § 4 Parliament also oversees local government administrations: Dzongkhag Tshogdus, Gewog Tshogdes, and

Thromde A thromde (Dzongkha: ཁྲོམ་སྡེ་; Wylie: ''khrom-sde'') is a second-level administrative division in Bhutan. The legal administrative status of thromdes was most recently codified under the Local Government Act of 2009, and the r ...

s. The Constitution provides that the National Assembly may, with support of at least two-thirds of its members (currently 32),

motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or m ...

in the Government. If the vote passes, the King shall dismiss the Government.

: Art. 7, §§ 6, 7

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Asia topic, Parliament of Bhutan, Parliament of 2007 establishments in Bhutan

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 ...