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GAUHATI, India (AP) - Bhutan's prime minister and six members of his Cabinet have resigned to pave the way for the first parliamentary elections in the Buddhist kingdom and its transition to democracy, the official media said Friday.
The seven officials submitted their resignations to King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck on Thursday and said they would leave their posts on Aug. 6, the state-run Bhutan Broadcasting Service quoted Prime Minister Khandu Wangchuk as saying.
Bhutan has been a monarchy since 1907, but its fourth ruler — the monarch's father, Jigme Singhye Wangchuck — put the nation on the road to democracy in the late 1990s. He abdicated in favor of his son, Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, in December 2006 to enable the new king to oversee Bhutan's transition to a democracy.
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