This case study examines the enfranchisement of Bhutan’s international and internal migrants. Compared with other South Asian countries, Bhutan stands out for adopting absentee voting policies and processes that aim for greater inclusion of its absent voters. However, the legal framework governing eligibility for absentee voting imposes substantial limitations, such as strict residency requirements, property ownership restrictions and limited categories of voters eligible for postal voting, which restrict broader enfranchisement.

The case study offers recommendations to enhance and expand the enfranchisement of Bhutan’s absent voters.

This paper is part of a series of eight case studies on absent voters in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.