Bhutan is one of the newest democracies in the world- it held its first democratic elections in 2008.

The office of the Prime Minister existed before the elections- long serving ministers of the cabinet served as Prime Minister on a rotation basis since 1998, after the then King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, partly devolved his own powers and set up the Prime Minister’s office.

The first politically elected Prime Minister of Bhutan is Jigmi Y Thinley.

Lyonchen (Prime Minister) Jigmi Yoedzer Thinley was born in 1952 in Bumthang, Bhutan. His father was a prominent civil servant. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from St Stephen College in India, and Masters in public Administration from Pennsylvania State University, USA.

He joined the civil service in 1974, the same year that the fourth king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck was coronated. He started off as officer on special duty of the then Manpower Cell, and was promoted within two years as the director of the Department of Manpower and Statistics.

In 1987, he was awarded the red scarf and title of ‘Dasho’ (a special honour bestowed by the king to people who have served the country exceptionally, similar to the British knighthood) and sent to the New York as the Permanent Representative of Bhutan to the United Nations. In 1992, he became the Home secretary, and was appointed the Deputy Minister for the Home Ministry in 1994, at which time he was also awarded the orange scarf (Given to civil servants of ministerial rank, referred to as Lyonpo). He was sent again as the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the United Nation’s Office and other International Organizations in Geneva. Accredited simultaneously as Ambassador to Austria, Denmark, the European Union, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

He returned in 1998, and became Bhutan’s first Prime Minister. The Prime Minister’s office was offered on a rotation basis to all the cabinet ministers for a year, and in 1999, Jigmi Y Thinley became the Foreign Minister. He once again served as Prime Minister in 2003-2004, after which he was the Home Minister prior to the introduction of Democracy.

Jigmi Y Thinley resigned from civil service in 2007 to join politics, and was named the president of the Druk Phuentshum Tshogpa. His party contested against the People’s Democratic Party led by another prominent ex-civil servant, Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup,. The DPT was elected to form the government in 2008 March in a landslide victory- even the party president of PDP lost in his own constituency to a DPT member.

Jjigmi Y Thinley then took office as the first democratically elected Prime Minister. Jigmi Thinley has gained worldwide recognition as a proponent of the Bhutanese development philosophy of GNH, a brainchild of the Fourth King, and was instrumental in enabling it to become one of the Millenium Development Goals of the United Nations.