Nepal Election 2074 Mangsir 21 Kankai Municipalities 3

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 ...

in two phases on 26 November and 7 December 2017 to elect the 275 members of the fifth

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 lower house of the Federal Parliament of Nepal. The election was held alongside the first provincial elections for the seven provincial assemblies. A political deadlock between the governing

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 ...

and the winning left-wing coalition over the system used to elect the

upper house An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...

led to delay in forming the new government. Following the announcement of the final result by the

Election Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

, K.P. Oli of

Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) (; Abbreviation, abbr. CPN (UML)) is a Communism in Nepal, communist List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal. The party emerged as one of the major parties in Nepal af ...

was sworn in as

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 ...

on 15 February 2018 by the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

according to Article 76 (2) of the constitution. He passed a

Motion of Confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

on 11 March 2018 with 208 votes.

Background

The previous House of Representatives, elected in May 1999, was dissolved by King Gyanendra on advice of

Sher Bahadur Deuba Sher Bahadur Deuba (, ; born 13 June 1946, Ashigram, Kingdom of Nepal) is a Nepali politician and former prime minister of Nepal. He has also been serving as the president of the Nepali Congress since 2016. Deuba has served five terms as prime ...

in May 2002 in order to hold new elections. Elections could not take place due to the ongoing

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

which eventually led King Gyanendra to stage a royal coup in February 2005 after dismissing four Prime Ministers. Following the democracy movement of 2006, the King reinstated the earlier legislature. On 15 January 2007, the House of Representatives was replaced by an Interim Legislature. The Interim Legislature consisted both of members appointed by an agreement between the Seven Party Alliance and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The Interim Legislature was followed by the first Constituent Assembly whose task was to form a new constitution. The failure of the assembly to write a constitution within the stipulated time led to the formation of the second Constituent Assembly which approved the Constitution of Nepal on 20 September 2015. After the promulgation of constitution, the second Constituent Assembly was converted into a unitary Legislature Parliament. The constitution set the tenure of the Legislature Parliament until 21 January 2018 or the date of filing of nomination for the

, whichever is earlier. Per this provision, the tenure of the Legislature Parliament ended on 14 October 2017. A five-member Constituency Delineation Commission was formed under the chairmanship of former Supreme Court Justice Kamal Narayan Das to redraw the constituency boundaries to 165, a reduction from the 240 used in the 2013 elections. It submitted its report to the government on 30 August 2017. The boundaries set by this commission will remain unchanged for the next 20 years as per Article 286 (12).

Electoral system

The 275 members of the legislature were elected by two methods; 165 were elected from single-member constituencies by

first-past-the-post voting First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

and 110 seats were elected by

closed list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively vote for only political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some in ...

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

from a single nationwide constituency. Each voter received separate

ballot paper A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16th centu ...

s for the two methods. A party or electoral alliance had to pass the election threshold of 3% of the overall valid vote to be allocated a seat under the proportional method. Nepal uses the

Sainte-Laguë method The Webster method, also called the Sainte-Laguë method (), is a highest averages apportionment method for allocating seats in a parliament among federal states, or among parties in a party-list proportional representation system. The Sainte- ...

to allocate proportional seats. Typically, the divisors under this system include all odd numbers (1, 3, 5, 7...). But in Nepal, the first divisor is 1.4, rather than 1. This is intended to make it difficult for smaller parties to get a single seat "too cheaply" as the system benefits smaller parties at the expense of larger ones.

Eligibility to vote

To vote in the general election, one must be: * on the electoral roll * aged 18 * a citizen of Nepal * of sound mind * not ineligible as per federal election fraud and punishment laws

Timetable

The key dates are listed below

Parties and alliances

A total of 88 parties were granted ballot access under the proportional system. However, only 49 parties submitted list of proportional candidates.

Left alliance

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

alliance comprising the

, the

Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (), abbreviated CPN (Maoist Centre) or CPN (MC), is the third largest List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal and a member party of Socialist Front (Nepal), Samajbadi Morcha. I ...

and the Naya Shakti Party was announced with party unification to follow after the elections. However, Naya Shakti Party left the alliance after its coordinator

Baburam Bhattarai Baburam Bhattarai (, ; born 18 June 1954), also known by his nom de guerre Laaldhwoj, is a Nepalese politician, architect and former Prime Minister of Nepal, Prime Minister who presently serves as leader of the Nepal Socialist Party. Bhattarai ...

was not guaranteed an election ticket from his preferred constituency of Gorkha. He subsequently switched alliances in Gorkha. Other leftist parties like

Rastriya Janamorcha Rastriya Janamorcha () is a political party in Nepal. It was originally founded in 1995 as the legal front of Communist Party of Nepal (Masal). Former Deputy Prime Minister, Chitra Bahdur KC is the chairman of the party. It was re-founded aga ...

and Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist–Leninist) had also joined this alliance in some constituencies.

Democratic alliance

An alliance consisting of the center-left

, the Rastriya Prajatanra Party, the Rastriya Prajatanra Party (Democratic),

Naya Shakti Party, Nepal Naya Shakti Party, Nepal (Nepali: नयाँ शक्ति पार्टी, नेपाल, translation: New Force Party, Nepal) was a Democratic socialism, democratic socialist List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal ...

and two Madhesh based parties, Federal Socialist Forum, Nepal and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal, was formed as a response to this left alliance. Rastriya Prajatantra Party allied with the left parties to defeat Nepali Congress candidate former Home Minister

Krishna Prasad Sitaula Krishna Prasad Sitaula () is a Nepali politician, belonging to the Nepali Congress. He is the leader of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party in the upper house, the National Assembly (Nepal), Rastriya Sabha. Sitaula is known for playing an imp ...

in Jhapa-3. Later two Madhesh based parties, Federal Socialist Forum, Nepal and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal left the alliance due to differences on seat sharing.

Madhesh alliance

After two Madhesh based parties, Federal Socialist Forum, Nepal and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal left the alliance due to differences on seat sharing, they formed an alliance on their own and fielded in elections.

Conduct

Before the final phase of the election, starting 5 December, the border with India was closed at 22 points. There have been over a hundred minor and major explosions in the run up to the elections targeting election assemblies and leaders. A temporary police was killed in Dang from an explosion at an event attended by the Prime Minister. Nepali Congress candidate Narayan Karki was injured in a targeted explosion to his vehicle in Udayapur while 11 people including former Health Minister Gagan Thapa were injured from an explosion in

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

Results

Five parties, CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninst),

, CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Janata Party and Federal Socialist Forum, won at least one seat in

and crossed the three percent in proportional voting and were represented in the parliament.

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 ...

, Naya Shakti Party,

and

Nepal Workers Peasants Party The Nepal Workers Peasants Party (NWPP), also known as the Nepal Workers' and Peasants' Party and the Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party (; abbr. , ), is a Communism in Nepal, communist List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal. The pa ...

did not reach the three percent threshold in proportional voting and were represented as independents in the parliament.

Major losses

These losses were mainly the result of formation of left alliance between CPN(UML) and CPN(Maoist Centre) which led to set back of Democratic alliance in the hill region. Similarly, FSF-N and RJP-N formed a pro- Madhesh alliance which led to its set back in Province no 2 which had remained fertile and for

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

in last decades ever since 1940s. The communist alliance later formed

Nepal Communist Party The Nepal Communist Party, abbreviated NCP (, ) was a communist party in Nepal that existed from 2018 to 2021. It was founded on 17 May 2018, from the unification of two Left-wing politics, leftist parties, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified M ...

while the Madhesh alliance changed to People's Socialist Party, Nepal. Both of these parties faced spit in 2021 as before due to difference in vision and ideologies. Still, these alliances resulted in the loss of the

which obtained highest number of votes in FPTP, gaining nearly 36% votes cast. In spite of this, the result went against Nepali Congress and they could not win any more than 23 seats, making it the third largest party per FPTP results. As such, many sitting ministers had to lose their seats. Surprisingly, Bam Dev Gautam and Narayan Kaji Shrestha lost their elections even though the Communist alliance nearly obtained a majority.

Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister to lose in the election

Kamal Thapa Kamal Thapa () is a Nepalese politician belonging to Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal. Thapa, has served as a Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal, Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (Nepal), Federal A ...

- Minister of

Energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

( Makwanpur 1)

* Gopal Man Shrestha - Minister of

Education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

( Syangja 2)

Outgoing Cabinet Ministers to lose in the election

* Sunil Bahadur Thapa - Minister of Industry ( Dhankutta 1)

* Farmulha Mansur - Minister of Labour and Employment ( Bara 3)

* Brikam Bahadur Thapa - Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Development ( Kathmandu 6)

* Deepak Bohora - Minister for

Health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

( Rupandehi 3)

* Bir Bahadur Balayar - Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation ( Doti 1)

* Gopal Dahit - Minister for Land Reform and Management ( Bardiya 2)

* Mohan Bahadur Basnet - Minister for Information and Communications ( Sindhupalchowk 1)

* Ram Krishna Yadav - Minister for Agricultural Development ( Dhanusha 2)

* Mahendra Yadav - Minister for Water Supply and Sanitation (

Dhanusha 4 Dhanusha 4 is one of four parliamentary constituencies of Dhanusha District 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 includ ...

)

* Ambika Basnet - Minister for Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation ( Kathmandu 3)

* Bikram Pandey - Minister of Forests and Soil Conservation ( Chitwan 3)

Former Deputy Prime Ministers to lose in the election

* Ram Chandra Paudel (

)- Former Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal -lost from Tanahun 1 of

Gandaki Province Gandaki Province ( ) ), is one of the seven federal provinces established by the current constitution of Nepal which was promulgated on 20 September 2015. Pokhara is the province's capital city. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region in Southw ...

* Bimalendra Nidhi (

Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal The deputy prime minister of Nepal () is the deputy head of government of Nepal. The deputy prime minister is second in seniority in the Council of Ministers of Nepal. The deputy prime minister is the senior-most member of cabinet after prime min ...

from 2016 to 2017 -lost from Dhanusha 3 of Province no 2 * Narayan Kaji Shrestha ( CPN(Maoist Centre))-

from 2011 to 2011 -lost from Gorkha 1 of

* Bamdev Gautam ( CPN(UML))-

from 2008 to 2009 and 2014-2015 -lost from Bardiya 1 of

Lumbini Province Lumbini Province () is a Provinces of Nepal, province in western Nepal. The country's Provinces of Nepal, third largest province in terms of area as well as List of Nepalese provinces by population, population, Lumbini is home to the World Herita ...

Aftermath

The governing Nepali Congress preferred the upper house to be elected by Single Transferable Voting System while the left parties preferred majority vote. Lack of consensus meant the Legislature Parliament disbanded on 14 October, as required by the constitution, without approving National Assembly Election Bill which included provisions to elect members of the upper house. According to Article 84 (8) of the Constitution of Nepal, at least one third of the total number of members elected to the Federal Parliament from each party must be women. Citing this provision, the Election Commission withheld announcing final results as the number of women each party needs to submit from their respective party lists could not be determined until the number of women in the upper house from each party was confirmed. The government sent the National Assembly Election Ordinance to the President on 23 October 2017 with the provision that the upper house be elected using Single Transferable Voting System.Row over National Assembly drags on
Myrepublica The ordinance was held by the president for two months citing lack of consensus, but was ultimately approved on 29 December 2017. Another delay occurred because the electoral college for the election of the upper house includes members of the State Assemblies who, due to the absence of Chiefs of State, had not been able to take the oath of office until late January.

References

{{Nepalese elections

November 2017 in Asia December 2017 in Asia Election and referendum articles with incomplete results General elections in Nepal 2017 elections in Nepal