No coalition in Bhutan's democracy?

‘Election’ is an appetizing word in the lexicon of democracy. The youngest democracy in Bhutan is observing rounds and rounds of election for the second time. How much egalitarian is the system imposed by the 4^th king His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuk is coming into test. 

Beginning from the registration of the voters to the formation of the house of parliaments, the democracy in Bhutan follows different levels of control and scrutiny.

The National Assembly election, for the second time, commences on 31 May 2013 and the result will be known the next day after submitting it to the king. But this election is only a primary round of the 2^nd phase.

The final round, which is called the general election poll day, is scheduled for 13^th July 2013.

As the 1^st phase, the election for the National Council, was held on 23rd April 2013. In this, one candidate from each of the twenty districts got elected. They were then joined by five more candidates nominated by the king and these 25 Councilors forms the upper house of parliament. There will be local government election later this year as the last phase.

The lower house of parliament is composed of 47 seats. The primary and the general rounds of Parliamentary election are to contest among the four eligible political parties for these seats. But here something unconventional system is enforced. That is, that the primary round of the National Assembly election is, for the voters to cast their votes only for the political parties and not for the candidates. Thus this round of election will judge which party or whose party will emerge as the most popular one and which comes the next!.

Then only the most popular two parties will be allowed to nominate 47 candidates to contest in the general election. The nomination will be examined by the Election Commission of Bhutan. 

Map of Bhutan showing constituencies

For instance if the party of Jigme Thinlay- DPT emerges again as the winner, the second most popular party, perhaps the party of Lily Wangchuk, DCT , will also be asked by the commission to nominate 47 candidates  for each of the 47 constituencies to contest in the general election. The other two contesting parties have no account to this nomination. In that election the voters will have to vote in order to approve one of the two nominees of their choice in each constituency as the candidate for the parliament. The question is then; will the failing candidates and parties be recognized by the government as the opposition wing? Will there be the government by coalition of more than two parties? Is this a multi-party system of democratic government formation? Also the chances to form government by the minority representatoion is tactfully avoided by allowing only two top parties to contest in the general election.

This system of forming the government polity was introduced during the monarchical system under the suzerainty of His Majesty the King Jigme Singye Wangchuk. The king although devoluted his power in August 1998, the constitutional monarchy began only in the year 2008 after the written constitution was promulgated. During that period the king, apparently trained a set of bureaucrats who headed the government as the rotating prime ministers. They are at this moment, through the political parties the most influential ones to get the parliamentary seats.   

The parliament’s foremost role is to scrutinize the government and make laws in cooperation of the government and the people. Besides the elected parliamentarians there will also be a new cabinet that comprises the ministers and state secretaries. For this reason, in a democratic system, such as in The Netherlands, various political parties who secure the seats through the election negotiates to form the new cabinet. The political parties with the majority in the parliament form a coalition. That is how multi party system of government comes into formation. But Bhutan’s political culture is developing in a different way, not to have much opposition active in the sate affairs. Nor possiblilities to form a government from the minority representations in the parliament because besides the top two winning parties the rest are not accounted to contest for the seats in the parliament. 

See video above - Controlled Democracy. RongThong the founder of Druk National Congress in exile.

Nanda.