The Provinces of Nepal, officially the Autonomous Nepalese Provinces (), were formed on 20 September 2015 in accordance with Schedule 4 of the

Constitution of Nepal The Constitution of Nepal () is the present governing Constitution of Nepal. Nepal is governed according to the Constitution which came into effect on 20 September 2015, replacing the Interim Constitution of 2007. The constitution of Nepal is di ...

. The seven provinces were formed by grouping the existing

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

. The current system of seven provinces replaced an earlier system where

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 ...

was divided into 14 administrative zones which were grouped into five development regions.

History

A committee was formed to restructure administrative divisions of Nepal on 23 December 1956 and in two weeks, a report was submitted to the government. In accordance with The ''Report On Reconstruction Of Districts Of Nepal, 2013'' (), the country was first divided into seven ''Kshetras'' (areas). #Arun Kshetra #Janakpur Kshetra #Kathmandu Kshetra #Gandaki Kshetra #Kapilavastu Kshetra #Karnali Kshetra #Mahakali Kshetra In 1962, all ''Kshetras'' were dissolved and the country was restructured into 75 development districts; those districts were further grouped into 14 zones. In 1972, all 14 zones were grouped into 4 development regions; later in 1981, they were rearranged into the following 5 development regions. # Eastern Development Region # Central Development Region # Western Development Region # Mid-Western Development Region # Far-Western Development Region The provinces of Nepal were formed according to Schedule 4 of the

. The seven provinces were formed by grouping the existing

; two districts, namely Nawalparasi and Rukum, were split between two provinces. Each district has local units. Local level bodies in Nepal include six metropolises, 11 sub-metropolises, 276 municipal councils and 460 village councils. The current system of seven provinces replaced an earlier system where Nepal was divided into 14 administrative zones which were grouped into five development regions. In January 2016 the

Government of Nepal The Government of Nepal () is the central executive authority of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. The government is led by the Prime Minister of Nepal, prime minister (K. P. Sharma Oli, K.P. Oli since 15 July 2024) who selects all the o ...

announced temporary headquarters of the seven provinces. According to Article 295 (2), the permanent names of the provinces will be determined by a two-thirds vote of the respective province's legislature.

Government

The executive power of the provinces, pursuant to the constitution and laws, is vested in the council of ministers of the province. The executive power of the province shall be exercised by the province head (governor) in case of absence of the province executive in a state of emergency or enforcement of the federal rule. Every province has a ceremonial head as the representative of the federal government. The President appoints a governor for every province. The governor exercises the rights and duties as to be performed specified in the constitution or laws. The governor appoints the leader of the parliamentary party with the majority in the provincial assembly as the chief minister and the council of ministers are formed under the chairpersonship of the chief minister.

Assemblies

The ''Pradesh Sabha'' is the

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

legislative assembly of each of the seven federal provinces. The term for the members of the provincial assemblies is five years, except when dissolved earlier. Candidates for each

constituency 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 ...

are chosen by the

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

or stand as independents. Each constituency elects one member under the

first past the post 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 votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

system of election. Since Nepal uses a

parallel voting In political science, parallel voting or superposition refers to the use of two or more Electoral system, electoral systems to elect different members of a legislature. More precisely, an electoral system is a superposition if it is a mixture o ...

system, voters cast another ballot to elect members through the

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

. The current constitution specifies that sixty percent of the members should be elected by the

system and forty percent through the

system. Women should account for one-third of total members elected from each party and if one-third percentage are not elected, the party that fails to ensure so shall have to elect one-third of total number as women through the

. A party with an overall majority (more seats than all other parties combined) following an election forms the government. If a party has no outright majority, parties can seek to form coalitions.

List of provinces of Nepal

References

External links