Washington: The United States has congratulated the people of Bhutan on holding elections which it called "another positive step" in the Himalayan nation s transition to a democratic, constitutional monarchy.

"We congratulate the people of the Kingdom of Bhutan on the successful elections for the lower house of parliament on March 24," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement yesterday.

"This event, which builds upon the historic and peaceful elections for the upper house of parliament in December 2007, marks another positive step in Bhutan's transition to a democratic, constitutional monarchy," it added.

Bhutan's landmark polls to elect the country's first democratic government ended yesterday in a landslide win for the party led by a US-educated two-time former premier, election officials said.

The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), or Bhutan United Party, scored an unexpected clean sweep, winning 44 of the 47 seats in the country's lower house in what had been seen as a tight race, the election commission announced.

The DPT is led by 56-year-old ex-premier Jigmi Thinley, who commands wide respect among Bhutan's educated elite and is now expected to be the country's first elected prime minister.

Yesterday's elections were proposed by Bhutan's revered royal family which has ruled for a century to peacefully transform the small Buddhist, wedged in the Himalayas between India and China, into a constitutional monarchy.

Source : PTI