At Stake in this Election: 

• Eligibility for the National Assembly election on 9 January 2024 

Bhutan holds national primary elections for the National Assembly in which voters select parties rather than candidates. The two parties that win the most votes advance to the general election and each nominate one candidate in every constituency. 

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 primary election, the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) and Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) parties won, advancing to the general election. 

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.  

Key Deadlines: 

• Candidate filing deadline: 4 November 2023  

• Voter registration deadline: 1 October 2023 

• Corrections and petitions for inclusion were allowed until 1 November 2023 

Main Parties in this Election: 

• Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa / འབྲུག་མཉམ་རུབ་ཚོགས་པ (DNT) 

• Seats won in last election: 30 out of 47 

• Druk Phuensum Tshogpa / འབྲུག་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ (DPT) 

• Seats won in last election: 17 out of 47 

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

• Seats won in last election: 0 out of 47 

• Druk Thuendrel Tshogpa / འབྲུག་མཐུན་འབྲེལ་ཚོགས་པ (DTT) 

• 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