National Assembly of Bhutan - Current National Assembly

Current National Assembly

The current National Assembly has 47 members, who were elected in the first ever general elections on March 24, 2008. Jigme Thinley's Druk Phuensum Tshogpa Party won a landslide victory, securing 45 seats. The People's Democratic Party won the other two, but its leader Sangay Ngedup lost the election in his constituency.

Under the 2008 Constitution, the National Assembly consists of a maximum of 55 members directly elected by the citizens of constituencies within each Dzongkhag (District). (Art. 12) Under this single-winner voting system, each constituency is represented by a single National Assembly member; each of the 20 Dzongkhags must be represented by between 2–7 members. Constituencies are reapportioned every 10 years. (Art. 12, §§ 1–2) The National Assembly meets at least twice a year, and elects a Speaker and Deputy Speaker from among its members. Members and candidates are allowed to hold political party affiliation.

Read more about this topic:  National Assembly Of Bhutan

Famous quotes containing the words national assembly, current, national and/or assembly:

    The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation.
    —French National Assembly. Declaration of the Rights of Man (Sept. 1791)

    For the purpose of knowledge, one must know how to use that inner current that draws us to a thing, and then the one that, after a time, draws us away from it.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    It is to be lamented that the principle of national has had very little nourishment in our country, and, instead, has given place to sectional or state partialities. What more promising method for remedying this defect than by uniting American women of every state and every section in a common effort for our whole country.
    Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)

    Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.
    James Madison (1751–1836)