Bhutan holds general election as economic crisis hits ‘national happiness’

The picturesque Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is set to hold a general election with serious economic challenges calling into question its longstanding policy of prioritising “Gross National Happiness” over growth.

Both parties contesting Tuesday’s vote are committed to a constitutionally enshrined philosophy of a government that measures its success by the “happiness and well-being of the people”.

Some voters are expected to trek for days to cast their ballots in the landlocked and sparsely populated country, similar in size to Switzerland.

Foremost in the minds of many are the struggles facing the kingdom’s younger generation, with chronic unemployment and a brain drain of migration abroad.

“We don’t need more new roads or bridges,” farmer Kinley Wangchuk, 46, told AFP news agency. “What we really need is more jobs for young people.”

Bhutan’s youth unemployment rate stands at 29 percent, according to the World Bank, while economic growth has sputtered along at an average of 1.7 percent over the past five years.

Young citizens have left in record numbers searching for better financial and educational opportunities abroad since the last elections, with Australia as the top destination.

Around 15,000 Bhutanese were issued visas there in the 12 months to last July, according to a local news report – more than the preceding six years combined, and almost 2 percent of the kingdom’s population.

The issue of mass exodus is central for both parties contesting the poll.