BHUTAN

Initiatives focusing on the youth of Bhutan

1. Democracy Club
The Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) in collaboration with the principal stakeholders, including the development partners of Bhutan, has engaged in undertaking full-fledged civic & voter education programme to build and promote the idea in schools and other educational and training institutes throughout Bhutan, so that the students and youth are better able to understand their current and future roles and responsibilities as citizens through a “Democracy Club”.
The ECB accords high priority to the youth of Bhutan and renders all necessary support in the successful implementation of the Democracy Club around the country. We are happy that the students are benefited from this learning opportunity.

2. Bhutan Children’s Parliament
The Bhutan Children’s Parliament (BCP) was established with the adoption of its Constitution as an opportunity for Bhutanese children to not only hone their leadership skills through hands on experiences but also be well informed and to voice their ideas, thoughts and feelings so that their concerns and opinions can be heard and included in the social and political landscape. The Bhutan Children’s Parliament has the full set of 67 Members representing the Democracy Clubs of the 47 National Assembly Demkhongs (Constituencies) and 20 National Council Demkhongs.

3. Volunteer-VOICE
Volunteers for Voter Information, Communication and Education (Volunteer-VOICE), a measure to fulfill the need for dissemination of intensive, rigorous and continuous information on democracy and elections to the general public, not only by the ECB but also by an interested Bhutanese Youth.
The ECB has successfully initiated and implemented the Volunteer-VOICE Programme in in Two Dzongkhags (District) with the youth of Bhutan.

4. Celebration of the National Voter’s Days
The Election Commission of Bhutan celebrates the National Voters Day every year and the Celebration is done by the Democracy Clubs members in their respective areas. This is the one programme where the youth are involved. The theme for the 2015 National Voters’ Day was “Youth in Democracy”, albeit the fact that more than half the population of Bhutan comprises of youth; the voter turnout of youth has been found to be low.

5. Facilitating the youth to get Voter Photo Identity Card (VPIC)
It is crucial that the general mass of whom the youth is a significant part we have facilitate as part of celebration by distributing the Voter Photo Identity Card (VPIC) for youth who will attain the eligible voting age.

6. Communication Strategy
The ECB has developed Communication Strategy where Facebook page has been created. The Facebook is the most popular social media platform in Bhutan and it has the maximum penetration in the country, which makes the best communication network. It has facilitated two ways communication in contrast to other medium and this forum has become the information source for the end user who are mostly the Democracy Club members and Members of BCP as of now and we are expecting others youth to join the group in our next phase which will be started very soon.
These are the few activities initiated besides the regular voter education programme conducted during the election period to encourage Bhutanese youth’s participation in the electoral process.
Through these activities, we take care of the many issues related to the youth participation in electoral process and their mindset.

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