Chiwogs of Bhutan (; Wylie: ''spyi 'og'') refer to the 1044 basic electoral precincts of

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

. Chiwogs are also former third-level administrative divisions of

below ''gewog''s. Until 2009, they were the equivalent of municipalities or parishes, containing clusters of villages and hamlets. There are generally 5 or 6 chiwogs in each gewog, and in turn several gewogs in each ''dzongkha'' (

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

). To illustrate, there are 50 chiwogs in Paro District alone. The majority of chiwogs are small rural communities; more densely populated areas tend to be separate

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 ...

s, or municipalities. A Chiwog Disaster Management Plan (CDMP) exists in some chiwogs to form an effective responsive to any local disasters. Often, participants in the CDMP are also trained at a geo level for better coordination.

Legal status

Until 2009, chios were administrative divisions subordinate to geos. Under the 2008

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

, chios are mentioned only as electorates, defined as "under a gewog," but did not specifically repeal the administrative status of chios. Under the Election Act of 2008, chios are basic electoral constituencies within geos to elect one member of the Geo Tshokde (county committee) and Dzongkha Thromde (district council). The legal status of chios as electoral precincts is confirmed by the Local Government Act of 2009, which repeals the Local Government Act of 2007 and provides no administrative role for chios.

Legal status

List of Chiwogs

Notes

See also

References