Chiwogs of Bhutan

Chiwogs of Bhutan (Dzongkha: སྤྱི་འོག་; Wylie: spyi-'og), also spelled chewog, refer to the 1,044 basic electoral precincts of Bhutan. Chiwogs are also former third-level administrative divisions of Bhutan, below Gewogs. Until 2009, they were the equivalent of municipalities or parishes, containing clusters of villages and hamlets. There are generally 5 or 6 chiwogs in each gewog, and in turn several gewogs in each dzongkhag (district). To illustrate, there are 50 chiwogs in Paro District alone. The majority of chiwogs are small rural communities; more densely populated areas tend to be separate thromdes, or municipalities. A Chiwog Disaster Management Plan (CDMP) exists in some chiwogs to form an effective responsive to any local disasters.^[1] Often, participants in the CDMP are also trained at a gewog level for better coordination.^[2]

Legal status

Until 2009, chiwogs were administrative divisions subordinate to gewogs.^[3][4] Under the 2008 Constitution, chiwogs are mentioned only as electorates, defined as "under a gewog," but did not specifically repeal the administrative status of chiwogs.^[5] Under the Election Act of 2008, chiwogs are basic electoral constituencies within gewogs to elect one member of the Gewog Tshogde (county committee) and Dzongkhag Thromde (district council).^[6] The legal status of chiwogs as electoral precincts is confirmed by the Local Government Act of 2009, which repeals the Local Government Act of 2007 and provides no administrative role for chiwogs.^[4]

List of chiwogs

The following is a list of the 1,044 chiwogs of Bhutan as of 2011:

Notes

See also

• Gewog
• Thromde
• List of villages in Bhutan

References