Electoral system for national legislature

Election Commission of Bhutan, Election Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan (2008), accessed 29 December 2023

189: Elections to the National Assembly shall be held in two rounds, namely: (a) Primary Round, in which all registered political parties shall be eligible to participate and contest; and (b) General Election, in which the two registered political parties securing the highest number and the next highest number of total valid votes cast in the Primary Round throughout the Kingdom are declared to be eligible to participate through nomination of candidates to contest National Assembly seats.

442: The Election Commission shall, on receipt of the Final Result Sheets from the Returning Officers of all National Assembly constituencies under section 441, in the case of the Primary Round: (a) calculate, record, and consolidate in the prescribed form, the total number of votes cast in all National Assembly constituencies throughout Bhutan, the total number of ballot papers rejected as invalid, and the total number of valid votes secured by each registered political party; and (b) declare and announce, in a prescribed form, the names of the two registered political parties which have secured the highest and the next highest number of valid votes cast in the Primary Round of election throughout Bhutan, for the purposes of General Election.

443: The Election Commission shall, on receipt of the Final Result Sheets from the Returning Officers of all National Assembly constituencies, in the case of General Election to the National Assembly, declare in a prescribed form, the candidates who have secured the highest number of valid votes in their respective Parliamentary constituencies as having been duly elected from those constituencies to the National Assembly.

Elections are held in two rounds. In the "primary round" (first round), Bhutanese vote for the political party of their choice. In the "general election" (second round), the two political parties that obtain the highest number of votes in the primary round field their candidates. This second round is held using FPTP.