General elections were held in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

on 15 November 1994 to elect the

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

. The election took place after the

Nepali Congress The Nepali Congress ( ; Abbreviation, abbr. NC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal and the largest party in the country ...

government collapsed and

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Birenda called new elections. The results showed that the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) won the most seats in the House of Representatives and

Man Mohan Adhikari Man Mohan Adhikari (Magi) (; 9 June 1920 – 26 April 1999) was the 31st Prime Minister of Nepal from 1994 to 1995, representing the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). He was the first communist Prime Minister in Nepal and ...

became

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

at the head of a

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...

Background

King Birenda agreed to introduce

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

in 1990 and to become a

constitutional monarch Constitutional monarchy, also known as limited monarchy, parliamentary monarchy or democratic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in making decisions. ...

after increasing protests by the 1990 People's Movement. The 1991 multi-party elections saw the Nepali Congress party win a majority with 112 of the 205 seats. Girija Prasad Koirala was chosen by the Nepali Congress as their leader in parliament and was appointed

. By 1994 the economic situation in Nepal had worsened and the opposition accused the government of being corrupt. Divisions had also arisen within the Nepali Congress after Prime Minister Koirala was accused of helping to ensure that the president of the Nepali Congress,

Krishna Prasad Bhattarai Krishna Prasad Bhattarai ( Nepali: कृष्णप्रसाद भट्टराई; 13 December 19244 March 2011) also known as Kishunji was a Nepalese political leader. He was one of the main leaders involved in transitioning Nepal from ...

, was defeated in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

in February 1994. These divisions led to 36 Nepali Congress members of parliament

abstaining Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with ...

from a parliamentary vote in July 1994 leading to the government losing the vote. As a result, Koirala offered his resignation as Prime Minister and King Birenda dissolved parliament with new elections called for 13 November. Koirala stayed on as caretaker Prime Minister until the election.

Campaign

The election saw 1,500 candidates spread over 24 parties competing for the 205 seats in the House of Representatives. The leading two parties in the election were the governing Nepali Congress and the main opposition party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). The Nepali Congress called on voters to stick with their party and not to entrust power to a Communist party they accused of being irresponsible. The Communist party called for

land reform Land reform (also known as agrarian reform) involves the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership, land use, and land transfers. The reforms may be initiated by governments, by interested groups, or by revolution. Lan ...

to break up large landholdings and give land to landless Nepalese peasants. Other pledges made by the party included running water and

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

for all voters and for each village to have at least one

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. While the party called for foreign investment to be somewhat restricted and for

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

s to be limited, they also stressed that they believed in a

mixed economy A mixed economy is an economic system that includes both elements associated with capitalism, such as private businesses, and with socialism, such as nationalized government services. More specifically, a mixed economy may be variously de ...

and did not support

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

. They accused the Nepali Congress government of having been incompetent and corrupt and said that a change in government was required. On

election day Election day or polling day is the day on which general elections are held. In many countries, general elections are always held on a Saturday or Sunday, to enable as many voters as possible to participate; while in other countries elections ...

itself there was some violence resulting in one death and another 15 people being injured. 124 international election monitors observed the election and new polls were ordered in 31

constituencies An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

where violence had occurred.

Results

The results saw the Nepali Congress party lose their majority in parliament and the Communist party became the largest group in the House of Representatives. However no party won the 103 seats required for a majority on their own. The pro-monarchy party, the

Rastriya Prajatantra Party The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (; ; , ()) is a monarchist, constitutional monarchist and Hindu nationalist List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal. The party was formed by Panchayat (Nepal), Panchayat era Prime Minister o ...

, made significant gains winning 20 seats up from the 4 they had won in the previous election.

Voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 58% a decline from 60% of those who had voted in the previous election in 1991.

Aftermath

Following the election the Communist party elected

as leader of the party in parliament and he attempted to form a minority government. King Birendra asked both the Communists and the Nepali Congress party to explain to him why they should be allowed to form the government and then he would make a decision on who should be appointed Prime Minister. The Nepali Congress attempted to form a deal with smaller parties including the Rastriya Prajatantra Party in order to try to stay in power. However this was unsuccessful and Adhikari became Prime Minister at the head of a minority Communist government. They therefore became the first elected communist government in a constitutional monarchy anywhere in the world and the first communist government in Asia to come into power democratically.

References

External links

Winners and runner-ups in the legislative elections of Nepal 1994 and 1999
{{Nepalese elections General elections in Nepal