Only 48 percent of the eligible voters whose census is registered in their villages actually live in village, reveals a documentary study of Bhutan’s first local government elections. This means more than half of the population lives out of their villages, which calls for a review of the current voting system that requires people to vote in the place where they have their census registered and not in the place of residence.
The book entitled “Democracy Up-Close” states that more than half of the population whose census are registered in the village live in urban places, negatively implicating the electoral system. “This has substantial implications for a well functioning of the electoral system if you stick to the current mandate on voting,” said the co-author of the book, Lekey Dorji. 
The study suggests reviewing the current system of allowing voters to vote only in the place of Mitsi registration rather than the place of residence. Lekey Dorji said if people are allowed to vote in their place of residence, it would ensure a better voter turnout.
“May be if we allow people to vote from where they live, irrespective of where their Mitsi is registered, then you can have better voter turnout and maybe we can have better exercise of adult franchise,” Lekey Dorji.
The study also found that conducting local government election is a daunting task, even more challenging than the parliamentary elections because of many numbers of seats in the local government and immense logistics required. There are over 1400 seats in Local Government as opposed to 67 in the parliament.
The book documents the evolution and process of country’s first local government elections. From mandates and responsibilities of Local government leaders to voter turnout, the book touches on many other aspects of the local government elections.
The book was sponsored by the Representation Office of Denmark and endorsed by the Election Commission of Bhutan.
