The National Assembly or Rastriya Sabha ( ne, राष्ट्रिय सभा; ) is the

upper house An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restric ...

of the

Federal Parliament of Nepal The Federal Parliament of Nepal ( ne, संघीय संसद नेपाल, translit=Saṅghīya Sansada Nēpāla, label=none) is the bicameral federal and supreme legislature of Nepal established in 2018. It consists of the National ...

, the lower house being the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. The composition and powers of the Assembly are established by Part 8 and 9 of the

Constitution of Nepal Constitution of Nepal 2015 ( ne, नेपालको संविधान २०७२) is the present governing Constitution of Nepal. Nepal is governed according to the Constitution which came into effect on 20 September 2015, replacing the ...

. There are a total of 59 members: 8 members are elected from each of the seven provinces by an electoral college of each province, and three are appointed by the President on recommendation of the government. Members serve staggered six year terms such that the term of one-third members expires every two years.

History

The National Assembly was first provisioned by the "Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990", which replaced the old panchayat system of parliament with a bicameral parliament. The National Assembly under the 1990 Constitution was dissolved on 15 January 2007 and replaced by a unicameral Interim Legislature. Following two Constituent Assembly elections which also served as a unitary Legislature Parliament, the constitution, promulgated on 20 September 2015, provisioned for a National Assembly as the upper house of the federal parliament.

Maha Sabha

Mahasabha ( ne, महासभा) was the upper house of the bicameral parliament of the

Kingdom of Nepal The Kingdom of Nepal ( ne, नेपाल अधिराज्य), also known as the Gorkha Empire ( ne, गोरखा अधिराज्य) or Asal Hindustan ( ne, असल हिन्दुस्तान)(), was a Hindu king ...

during 1959 - 1962. The

Revolution of 1951 The revolution of 1951 () in Nepal, also referred to as Sat Salko Kranti, was a political movement against the direct rule by the Rana dynasty of Nepal which had lasted for 104 years. It marks the beginning of the political awakening and democrat ...

made the process to enact a new constitution, which was able to transfer all executive powers back to the Shah kings from

Rana regime Rana dynasty ( ne, राणा वंश, IAST=Rāṇā vaṃśa , ) is a Chhetri dynasty that imposed totalitarianism in the Kingdom of Nepal from 1846 until 1951, reducing the Shah monarch to a figurehead and making Prime Minister and other ...

King Mahendra Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev ( ne, श्री ५ महाराजाधिराज महेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाह देव; 11 June 1920 – 31 January 1972) was the King of Nepal from 13 March 1955 until ...

was unable to resist the increasingly well-orchestrated political demands by the Nepali National Congress for a more democratic and representative government, and was forced to promulgate a new constitution. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1959 proclaimed on 12 February 1959, describes about Mahasabha ( ne, महासभा, label=none) as: "There shall be a Parliament which shall consist of His Majesty and two Houses, to be known respectively as the Senate (Maha Sabha) and the

(Pratinidhi Sabha)" ''(Article No. 18, Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1959).'' The constitution of Kingdom of Nepal, 1959 lasted till 16 December 1962. On 16 December 1962, the new Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal, 1962 was proclaimed and the parliament of the Kingdom of Nepal became unicameral. Mahasabha couldn't continue more than two years.

Rastriya Panchayat

Rastriya Panchayat was a constitution introduce on December 16, 1962, by King Mahendra. A four-tier system of indirectly elected councils was established from the village to the national level. The Rastriya Panchayat declared Nepal a Hindu state. The people's movement of 1990 brought an end to absolute monarchy and Panchayat system.

Membership

The qualifications for being a member of National Assembly are laid out in Article 87 of the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

and the National Assembly Member Election Act, 2017: * must be a citizen of Nepal * must be at least thirty-five years of age on date of nomination * must have name listed on voter list * should not have been convicted of a criminal offense involving moral turpitude * must not be disqualified by any Federal law * must not be holding any office of profit.

Election procedure

Each of the seven provinces elects 8 members each and

Government of Nepal The Government of Nepal ( ne, नेपाल सरकार) is the federal executive authority of Nepal. Prior to the abolition of the Nepali monarchy in 2006 (became republic in 2008), it was officially known as His Majesty's Government. T ...

nominates 3 members and recommends to the President for approval. The electoral college consists of members of the

provincial assembly Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

and chairperson/mayor and vice-chairperson/deputy mayor of the local bodies within the province. Each provincial assembly member's vote has a weight of forty eight whereas each chairperson/mayor/vice-chairperson/deputy mayor's vote has a weight of eighteen. Out of the eight members from each province, three must be women, one must be from the

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

community, and one must be a disabled person or from a minority community. Each elector gets four ballots; one for the three open seats, one for the three female seats, one for the dalit seat and one for the disabled or minority seat. The three open and three female seats are filled by

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...

, the two other seats by

FPTP In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

. The election is conducted by the Election Commission.

Chairpersons and deputy chairpersons

Current membership by party

Explanatory notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:National Assembly Of Nepal Government of Nepal History of Nepal (1951–2008)

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

Parliament of Nepal 1990 establishments in Nepal