Kathmandu : Fourteen women have secured seats in Nepal’s Parliament in the recently concluded general elections, accounting for a little over eight per cent of the total seats filled through direct voting.
Of the 14 women elected, 13 belong to the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), while one candidate was elected from the Nepali Congress (NC).
The number of women elected to the lower house has increased compared to the 2022 parliamentary elections, when only nine women candidates had won seats, making up around 5.45 per cent of the House.
Despite this improvement, women’s representation remains far below the constitutional requirement. Nepal’s Constitution mandates that women should hold at least 33 per cent of the seats in Parliament, a target political parties have yet to achieve.
With 14 women winning through the direct election system this time, their share stands at approximately 8.48 per cent so far.
The House of Representatives of Nepal has a total of 275 seats. Of these, 165 members are elected through direct voting, while the remaining 110 are chosen through a proportional representation system.
The highest number of women elected to Parliament was recorded during the first Constituent Assembly election in 2008, when 30 women won seats.
At that time, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)emerged as the largest political force after entering mainstream politics through the peace process that ended a decade-long armed insurgency. Many of the women elected during that period were former Maoist guerrillas.
Among the notable victories in the current election, Indira Ranamagar of the RSP defeated Dev Raj Ghimire, the Speaker of the dissolved House from the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), by a margin of 48,742 votes. Ranamagar secured 60,110 votes compared to Ghimire’s 11,368.
Another key contest saw Rubina Acharya of the RSP defeat senior Nepali Congress leader Shekhar Koiralaby a wide margin, polling 55,513 votes against his 12,850.
Similarly, Sobita Gautam of the RSP won decisively against Renu Dahal of the Nepal Communist Party, who is the daughter of former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Gautam secured 59,277 votes, while Dahal received 20,615 votes after stepping down as mayor of Bharatpur Metropolitan City to contest the election.
Other women elected in the polls include Nisha Dangi, Asha Jha, Pushpa Kumari Chaudhari, Gauri Kumari, Nitima Bhandari, Ashika Tamang, Ranju Neupane, Toshima Karki, Bina Gurung and Komal Gyawali from the RSP, along with Vasana Thapa, 45, from the Nepali Congress.
