[5] Due to a lack of candidates contesting seats, a total of 373 vacancies remained after local government elections.
[4] The Commission pronounced penalties against elections personnel in nine districts due to their negligence in failing to follow guidelines and detect candidate ineligibility.
It also announced that further elections would be held in the near future to address quashed results, ties, and remaining vacancies.
[7] The democratic process again performed: despite the discouraging disqualifications, long journeys to polling stations, and decreased voter turnout in Goenshari from 382 to 323, the rerun proved hotly contested and was won by Kinley Dorji by a narrow 16 votes.
While candidates for local elections need not possess a formal university degree, they must be functionally literate and adequately skilled.
Notably, candidates must be natural-born citizens born of two Bhutanese parents,[10] pass a functional literacy and skills test,[11] obtain a security clearance,[12] make extensive personal, financial, and professional disclosures,[13][14][15][16] and formally prove they have no current party affiliation.
[19][20] As part of local elections, candidates also choose a symbol and appear on a list published by the Returning Officer.
[3][22][23][24] Between 2008 and 2011, recruitment and retention of Tshogpas (local government council members) and Thrompons (mayors) remained a serious issue.
Obstacles range from lack of interest and economic incentives to difficulty in compliance and obtaining accreditation under existing election laws.
The functional literacy and skills test alone left many constituencies without the minimum of two candidates, leading to lengthy delay of the local government elections of 2011, originally slated for 2008.