General Election, 9 January 2024

Bhutan held its fourth National Assembly (ཚོགས་འདུ་ / Tshogdu) election on 30 November 2023 (first round) and 9 January 2024 (second round). The National Assembly is the first chamber of Bhutan’s bicameral parliament, and its 47 members are directly elected by plurality vote in single-seat constituencies (Demkhongs). Most members of the parliament’s second chamber, the National Council (གི་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེ་ / Gyelyong Tshogde), are directly elected by a plurality vote in single-seat constituencies. Only five members and the Prime Minister are appointed by the King. All members of the bicameral parliament serve five-year terms (ACE 2018; IFES 2024). National elections in Bhutan are managed and conducted by the Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB)). 

To ensure the integrity, transparency and fairness of the 2024 National Assembly elections, the ECB took several proactive measures in advance. To address electoral challenges such as voter accessibility and electoral fraud, the ECB conducted training and awareness initiatives for voters and others, stringent monitoring, the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) and enforcement of election laws. On accessibility for voters with disabilities,. efforts include special amenities, no queueing and early voting options (Deki 2023). Additionally, in-country mobile voting and postal voting in the country and from abroad are special voting arrangements available to every citizen. 

The ECB´s efforts in the run-up to the elections may have contributed towards a calm pre-election phase and election day. While there were a few cases of social media misinformation (EFSAS 2024) and some voters had to travel for days to cast their vote (France 24/AFP 2024), no incidents of election-related violence, boycott or other electoral dispute were recorded (Kugelman 2024). The US and India congratulated Bhutan on the successful and peaceful conduct of the elections (Modi 2024; US Department of State 2024). 47 National Observers monitored the National Assembly Elections (Deki 2023). However, they did not publish an election observation report and nor were there international election observers present.  

In the second round, the opposition People’s Democratic Party, led by Tshering Tobgay, won by taking 30 of the 47 seats. The former ruling Bhutan Tendrel Party led by Pema Chewang secured 17 seats (Kugelman 2024). Voter turnout in the second round was 65.6 per cent, lower than in the last parliamentary elections in 2018, when it was 71.46 per cent (International IDEA 2024). 

Women’s representation was lower than in the previous elections, with only two out of five female candidates winning seats in the National Assembly (Rai 2024). After the election, women held 4.3% of the elected seats, a significant decrease from 17.4% prior to the election (IPU 2025).