List of political parties in Bhutan
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In Bhutan, political parties need to be registered with Election Commission to contest National Assembly elections. Political parties can only contest National Assembly elections, since being an independent is a requirement for contesting National Council and local government elections.
Besides the official registered parties that came into existence after the democratisation of Bhutan, many Bhutanese parties have been operating in exile since the 1990s. Most of these parties are run by exiled people from the Lhotshampa community from the refugee camps in Nepal.[1]
Official parties
[edit]In Bhutan, political parties need to be registered with Election Commission of Bhutan to participate in the Bhutanese elections.[2]
Active parties
[edit]| Party | Abbr. | Registered | Ideology | Position | Assembly seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People's Democratic Party མི་སེར་དམངས་གཙོའི་ཚོགས་པ་། |
PDP | 2007 | Royalism Liberalism Progressivism |
Centre to centre-left |
30 / 47
| |
| Druk Phuensum Tshogpa འབྲུག་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ། |
DPT | 2007 | Conservatism Royalism |
Centre-right | 0 / 47
| |
| Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa འབྲུག་མཉམ་རུབ་ཚོགས་པ་། |
DNT | 2013 | Social democracy | Centre-left | 0 / 47
| |
| Druk Thuendrel Tshogpa འབྲུག་མཐུན་འབྲེལ་ཚོགས་པ། |
DTT | 2022 | Buddhist capitalism | 0 / 47
| ||
| Bhutan Tendrel Party བྷུ་ཊཱན་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཚོགས་པ་། |
BTP | 2023 | Centre | 17 / 47
| ||
Deregistered parties
[edit]In 2018, Druk Chirwang Tshogpa was deregistered by the Election Commission on its own request.[3]
In 2023, the Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party deregistered after years of low activity.[4] The party had failed to find a new leader after Neten Zangmo resigned the position in 2018.
Other political parties
[edit]The following parties are all based in exile.
- Bhutan Democratic Socialist Party
- Bhutan Gorkha National Liberation Front
- Bhutan National Congress
- Bhutan National Democratic Party
- Bhutan National Party
- Bhutan Peoples' Party
- Bhutanese Movement Steering Committee
- Communist Party of Bhutan (Marxist–Leninist–Maoist)
- Druk National Congress
The Druk National Congress was formed in exile in Kathmandu, Nepal on June 16, 1994.[citation needed]
On August 26, 2010, Bhutanese political parties in exile formed an umbrella group to pursue a "unified democratic movement led by Rongthong Kunley Dorji, President of the Druk National Congress. The group's offices opened in Kathmandu in November 2010, and it seems to receive some measure of support from the Nepalese government.[5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Rizal, Dhurba P (2015). The royal semi-authoritarian democracy of Bhutan. Lexington Books. ISBN 9781498507479. OCLC 906010256.
- ^ "Election Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan 2008" (PDF). Government of Bhutan. 2008-07-28. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-09-21. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- ^ Subba, MB (2018-02-27). "Druk Chirwang Tshogpa deregistered". Kuensel. Archived from the original on 2019-04-10. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- ^ "Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party (BKP) stands deregistered as a Political Party". ECB. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
- ^ Chandrasekharan, S. (2010-12-08). "BHUTAN: Political Parties in Exile Form an Umbrella Organisation: Update No. 88". South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG). Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
External links
[edit]- Penjore, Ugyen (2007-04-11). "Candidates not yet identified". Kuensel online. Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 2011-05-22.
| Current parties | |
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| Former parties | |
| Banned parties | |
