Bhutan has proposed Dasho Sonam Topgay as the 16th secretary general of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), setting the stage for another leadership change as the regional grouping remains mired in a prolonged political stalemate.

The proposal comes as incumbent Secretary General Golam Sarwar of Bangladesh is due to complete his three-year term at the end of October. Under SAARC’s established alphabetical rotation, it is Bhutan’s turn to nominate the next secretary general.

“Thimphu proposed Topgay’s name at the SAARC Secretariat in early August and is now seeking concurrence from the other member states,” a diplomat at the SAARC Secretariat told the Post.

The nomination could be discussed at a SAARC meeting scheduled for September 25 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, according to diplomatic sources.

If all seven other member states concur with Bhutan’s nomination, Topgay is expected to assume office by the end of October.

SAARC has been unable to hold a summit since 2016. No high-level meeting above the programming committee—which meets at the joint-secretary level—has taken place since 2020, further slowing the regional process.

Reviving the stalled SAARC process, including efforts to convene a summit, is expected to be among the key challenges facing the new secretary general.

Sarwar’s three-year term ends in October. According to the SAARC Secretariat, he is currently visiting member states and making farewell calls on heads of government, foreign ministers and other senior officials.

Topgay, a former chief election commissioner of Bhutan, is a seasoned civil servant with more than 38 years of government service, according to the Bhutanese Election Commission.

He holds a bachelor’s degree with honours in political science, which he completed between 1982 and 1985, and a master’s degree in public administration, completed between 1992 and 1994. He also holds a diploma in French from the University of Clermont-Ferrand in France and a diploma in human rights reporting from the United Nations Centre for Human Rights and the International Labour Organization in Turin, Italy.

As a member of Bhutan’s senior civil service, Topgay completed IAS probationers’ training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie, India, from 1987 to 1989. He was also awarded the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship at the University of Minnesota in the United States in 2005–06.

Topgay served in Bhutan’s Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs and held several senior positions, including home secretary; director general of the Department of Law and Order; director general of the departments of Civil Registration and Census and Local Governance; and joint director and officer in the Bureau of Law and Order between 1986 and 2005.

He completed his term as Bhutan’s chief election commissioner in 2025.