1991 Nepalese general election

General elections were held in Nepal on 12 May 1991, to elect 205 members to the House of Representatives. The elections were the first multi-party elections since 1959. The 1990 Nepalese revolution successfully made King Birendra to restore a multi-party system after King Mahendra had established the Rastriya Panchayat when he dissolved the parliament in December 1960.[1][2]

1991 Nepalese general election

← 1986 12 May 1991 1994 →

All 205 seats in the House of Representatives
103 seats needed for a majority
Turnout65.15%
  First party Second party
 
Leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai Madan Kumar Bhandari
Party NC CPN (UML)
Seats won 110 69
Popular vote 2,752,452 2,040,102
Percentage 39.50% 29.27%

PM before election

Krishna Prasad Bhattarai
NC

Elected PM

Girija Prasad Koirala
NC

Although the Nepali Congress won the most seats, its leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai lost in his own constituency, Kathmandu 1. Communist leader Madan Kumar Bhandari was elected in both Kathmandu 1 and Kathmandu 5, vacating the latter.[3]

Results edit

 
PartyVotes%Seats
Nepali Congress2,752,45239.50110
Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist)2,040,10229.2769
Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Chand)478,6046.873
Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (Thapa)392,4995.631
United People's Front of Nepal351,9045.059
Nepal Sadbhavana Party298,6104.286
Communist Party of Nepal (Democratic)177,3232.542
Nepal Workers Peasants Party91,3351.312
Rastriya Janamukti Party34,5090.500
Communist Party of Nepal (Burma)16,6980.240
Janata Dal (Samajbadi Prajatantrik)5,7600.080
Nepal Rastriya Jana Party5,7320.080
Communist Party of Nepal (Amatya)4,8460.070
Rastriya Janata Party (H)4,4060.060
Rastriya Janata Party (Nepal)4,2800.060
Nepal Conservative Party2,5620.040
Bahu Jana Janatadal2,0120.030
Janawadi Morcha Nepal1,5180.020
Ekata Party940.000
Dalit Majdoor Kisan Party920.000
Independents303,7234.363
Total6,969,061100.00205
Valid votes6,969,06195.58
Invalid/blank votes322,0234.42
Total votes7,291,084100.00
Registered voters/turnout11,191,77765.15
Source: Nohlen et al., IFES

Aftermath edit

Following the result of the election, Nepali Congress came to power and Girija Prasad Koirala became Prime Minister.[4] The house met for the first time in May 1991. Daman Nath Dhungana served as the Speaker of the House.[5] The parliament could not complete its full five-year term with Koirala asking King Birendra to dissolve the house in July 1994 after losing a no-confidence motion with some member of his own party voting against him.[6][7]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Kingdom of Nepal: Parliamentary Elections, May 12, 1991". www.ifes.org. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  2. ^ "NEPAL'S CABINET IS OUSTED BY KING; Mahendra Seizes Ministers as 'Anti-Nationalists' and Dissolves Parliament NEPAL'S CABINET IS OUSTED BY KING (Published 1960)". The New York Times. 1960-12-16. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  3. ^ Election history of Nepal (नेपालको निर्वाचन इतिहास) [Election history of Nepal] (in Nepali). Kathmandu: Election Commission Nepal. 2017. pp. 634–640. ISBN 978-9937-0-2116-6.
  4. ^ "Nepal Picks Prime Minister, In Transition to Democracy (Published 1991)". The New York Times. 1991-05-30. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  5. ^ "Dhungana makes a comeback to politics after 23 years". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  6. ^ "NEPAL: parliamentary elections Pratinidhi Sabha, 1994". archive.ipu.org. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  7. ^ Moore, Molly (1994-07-12). "NEPAL'S GOVERNMENT COLLAPSES AS KING DISSOLVES LEGISLATURE". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-12-12.