March 24 in History
2008 – Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election
Bhutan, a constitutional monarchy with Mahayana Buddhism as the state religion, held its first National Assembly elections on this day in 2008, following the Constitution of the same year that established a parliamentary government with an elected National Assembly and a National Council. The chief contestants at the National Assembly elections were the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party (DPT) led by Jigme Thinley and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) led by Sangay Ngedup. The DPT won the elections, taking 45 out of 47 seats. Jigme Thinley served as Prime Minister from 2008 to 2013. The People’s Democratic Party came to power in the 2013 elections. It won 32 seats and 54.88% of the vote. PDP leader Tshering Tobgay served as Prime Minister from 2013 to 2018. Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa won the largest number of seats in the 2018 National Assembly Election, bringing Lotay Tshering to premiership and Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa into the government for the first time.
Bhutan is a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and in 2020, was ranked third in South Asia after Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the Human Development Index. Bhutan is also a member of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, the Non-Aligned Movement, BIMSTEC, the IMF, the World Bank, UNESCO and the World Health Organization (WHO). It was ranked first in SAARC in economic freedom, ease of doing business, peace and lack of corruption in 2016.
-Wikipedia