New Delhi: The Election Commission on Wednesday said the 275-member Nepal parliament has only 91 women legislators, well short of the 33% reservation for women mandated by the constitution.
Nepal voted on 20 November to elect 275 representatives to the House of Representatives (HOR) and 550 members to the seven provincial assemblies.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress-led five-party alliance is two seats away from a simple majority after securing 136 seats in the HOR.
The Election Commission said that out of 275 newly elected members in the HOR, 184 are men and 91 are women, which is only 31.10% representation for women.
However, Nepal’s constitution mandates 33% reservation for women in parliament.
Women candidates fared slightly better in provincial assemblies, however, winning 200 of the 550 seats, registering 36.36%.
The Election Commission will hand over the final results to Nepal’s President Bidya Bhandari.
Of the 275-member HoR, 165 are elected through direct voting, while the remaining 110 are elected through a proportional electoral system.
A party or coalition needs 138 seats to win a clear majority.
The Nepali Congress has emerged as the largest party with 89 seats after the Election Commission allocated seats to all political parties under the proportional voting system.
Other ruling coalition partners together won 47 seats – CPN-Maoist Center (32), CPN-Unified Socialist (10), Democratic Socialist Party (4) and Rashtriya Janmorcha one seat.
C.K. The Raut-led Janmat Party, which secured only one seat in the House of Representatives (HOR) under the first-past-the-post category, got 5 seats under the Proportional Representation (PR) category, meaning that the party’s Total six members in one house.
Sources said that last week, Prime Minister Deuba met Mr. Raut at the Prime Minister’s residence and discussed matters related to cooperation in the coming days.
Earlier this month, the Election Commission of Nepal said that seven political outfits, including the newly formed Rashtriya Swatantra Party, have been granted national party status.
To become a national party in Nepal, it is mandatory to win 3% proportional representation votes.
The Kathmandu Post newspaper quoted Nepal’s spokesman Guru Prasad Wagle as saying that the CPN-UML, Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Centre), Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP), Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samaj Party and Janmat Party were given this status. Is. As the Election Commission is saying.
The elections to the HOR and seven provincial assemblies were held to end the long-standing political instability that had plagued the Himalayan nation.
