The Government of Bhutan has been a constitutional monarchy since 18 July 2008. The King of Bhutan is the head of state. The executive power is exercised by the Lhengye Zhungtshog, or council of ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. Legislative power is vested in the bicameral Parliament, both the upper house, National Council, and the lower house, National Assembly. A royal edict issued on April 22, 2007 lifted the previous ban on political parties, ordering that they be created, in anticipation of National Assembly elections to be held the following year. In 2008, Bhutan adopted its first modern Constitution, codifying the institutions of government and the legal framework for a democratic multi-party system.
Haa District is one of the 20 dzongkhag or districts comprising Bhutan. Per the 2015 census, the population of Haa dzongkhag was 13499,1572 households making it the second least populated dzongkhag in Bhutan after Gasa. The dominant language of the district is Dzongkha, the national language.
Bhutan comprises twenty districts.
Paro District is a district (dzongkhag), valley, river and town in Bhutan. It is one of the most historic valleys in Bhutan. Both trade goods and invading Tibetans came over the pass at the head of the valley, giving Paro the closest cultural connection with Tibet of any Bhutanese district. The dominant language in Paro is Dzongkha, the national language.
Chukha District is one of the 20 dzongkhag (districts) comprising Bhutan. The major town is Phuentsholing which is the gateway city along the sole road which connects India to western Bhutan. Chukha is the commercial and the financial capital of Bhutan. With Bhutan's oldest hydropower plant, Chukha hydel, and Tala Hydroelectricity Project, the country's largest power plant, Chukha is the dzongkhag which contributes the most to the GDP of the country. Also located in Chukha district are some of the country's oldest industrial companies like the Bhutan Carbide Chemical Limited (BCCL) and the Bhutan Boards Products Limited (BBPL).
Gasa District or Gasa Dzongkhag is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. The northern part of Gasa District is a disputed zone under the control of the People's Republic of China. The capital of Gasa District is Gasa Dzong near Gasa. It is located in the far north of the county and spans the Middle and High regions of the Tibetan Himalayas. The dominant language of the district is Dzongkha, which is the national language. Related languages, Layakha and Lunanakha, are spoken by semi-nomadic communities in the north of the district.
Samtse District is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan.
Elections in Bhutan are conducted at national (Parliamentary) and local levels. Suffrage is universal for citizens 18 and over, and under applicable election laws. In national elections, political party participation is mainly restricted to the lower house of Parliament, and by extension, to the executive nominated by its majority.
A gewog, in the past also spelled as geog, refers to a group of villages in Bhutan. The head of a gewog is called a gup. Gewogs form a geographic administrative unit below dzongkhag districts, and above Dzongkhag Thromde class B and Yenlag Thromde municipalities. Dzongkhag Thromde class A municipalities have their own independent local government body.
National Assembly elections were held in Bhutan for the first time on 24 March 2008. Two parties were registered by the Election Commission of Bhutan to contest the election: the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party, which was formed by the merger of the previously established Bhutan People's United Party and All People's Party and is led by Jigme Y. Thinley, and the People's Democratic Party (PDP). The third political party, the Bhutan National Party (BNP), had its application for the registration canceled.
The development of Bhutanese democracy has been marked by the active encouragement and participation of reigning Bhutanese monarchs since the 1950s, beginning with legal reforms such as the abolition of slavery, and culminating in the enactment of Bhutan's Constitution. The first democratic elections in Bhutan began in 2007, and all levels of government had been democratically elected by 2011. These elections included Bhutan's first ever partisan National Assembly election. Democratization in Bhutan has been marred somewhat by the intervening large-scale expulsion and flight of Bhutanese refugees during the 1990s; the subject remains somewhat taboo in Bhutanese politics.
The National Assembly is the elected lower house of Bhutan's new bicameral Parliament which also comprises the Druk Gyalpo and the National Council. It is the more powerful house.
The Parliament of Bhutan consists of the King of Bhutan together with a bicameral parliament. This bicameral parliament is made up of an upper house, the National Council and a lower house, the National Assembly. The current parliamentary framework replaced the unicameral Tshogdu in 2007, with the first members taking seats in 2008.
The Constitution of Bhutan was enacted 18 July 2008 by the Royal Government of Bhutan. The Constitution was thoroughly planned by several government officers and agencies over a period of almost seven years amid increasing democratic reforms in Bhutan. The current Constitution is based on Buddhist philosophy, international Conventions on Human Rights, comparative analysis of 20 other modern constitutions, public opinion, and existing laws, authorities, and precedents. According to Princess Sonam Wangchuck, the constitutional committee was particularly influenced by the Constitution of South Africa because of its strong protection of human rights.
Chali Gewog is a gewog of Mongar District, Bhutan. In 2002, the gewog contained 263 households and covered an area of 42 square kilometres.
National Council elections were held in Bhutan on 23 April 2013. All candidates ran as independents, as National Council members were prohibited from belonging to a political party.
The Local Government Act of Bhutan was enacted on September 11, 2009, by parliament of Bhutan in order to further implement its program of decentralization and devolution of power and authority. It is the most recent reform of the law on Bhutan's administrative divisions: Dzongkhags, Dungkhags, Gewogs, Chiwogs, and Thromdes (municipalities). The Local Government Act of Bhutan has been slightly amended in 2014.
A thromde 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 role of thromdes in elections in Bhutan was defined in the Election Act of 2008
The Bhutanese local government elections of 2011 were originally slated for 2008, but were delayed until 2011. Elections began on January 20, 2011, however polls opened in only 3 of 20 districts – Thimphu, Chukha District (Phuentsholing), and Samdrup Jongkhar – as part of a staggered election schedule. Polls closed June 27, 2011. Ahead of elections, 1,042 chiwogs, the basis of Bhutan's single-constituency electoral scheme, were slated to elect the leadership of Dzongkhag, Gewog, and Thromde governments.
