1959 Nepalese general election

General elections were held in Nepal from 18 February to 3 April 1959 to elect the 109 members of the first House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Nepal.[1][5] They were held under the provisions of the 1959 constitution, which had been adopted on 12 February.[6] More than 4.25 million people out of an overall population of about 8.55 million (1954) were eligible to vote.[7] Voter turnout was 42.18%.[8][2]

1959 Nepalese general election
18 February–3 April 1959[1]
All 109 seats in the House of Representatives
55 seats needed for a majority
Registered4,246,368[2]
Turnout1,791,381
  First party Second party
 
Leader B. P. Koirala Randhir Subba
Party Congress Gorkha Parishad
Leader's seat No. 32 (Won)[3] No. 26 (Lost)[4]
Seats won 74 19
Popular vote 666,898 305,118
Percentage 37.2% 17.1%
Prime Minister before election

Subarna Shamsher Rana
Congress

 Elected Prime Minister

B. P. Koirala
Congress

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The result was a victory for the Nepali Congress, winning 74 of the 109 seats with 38% of the vote.[9] B. P. Koirala became the first democratically elected and 22nd Prime Minister of Nepal.[10]

Campaign

786 candidates competed for 109 seats in the House of Representatives; 268 ran as independents, with the others representing nine parties. The Nepali Congress contested 108 constituencies, the Gorkha Parishad contested in 86 seats and the Communist Party of Nepal contested 47 seat.

The CIA covertly assisted Koirala and the Nepali Congress in winning the election.[11]

Results

Only four parties secured the designation of 'National party' in accordance with the Election Act of Nepal 1959. The party presidents of eight of the nine parties failed to win a seat, with Nepali Congress Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala the only party president to be elected, winning in constituency No. 32 (Morang South Biratnagar West).[4] Nepali Congress leader Subarna Shamsher Rana contested three constituencies (No. 52 (Bara Parsa, Central North), constituency No. 53 (Bara, East Parsa) and constituency No. 91 (Gulmi, South-West)) and won them all. Another Nepal Congress leader Surya Prasad Upadhyaya contested two constituencies (constituency No. 5 (Kathmandu Valley) and constituency No. 14 (Ramechhap, South)) but was defeated in both.

Gorkha Parishad president Randhir Subba was defeated in constituency No. 26 Dhankuta. Tarai Congress president Vedananda Jha lost in constituency No. 39 Siraha. Communist Party of Nepal General Secretary Keshar Jung Rayamajhi was defeated in Palpa Constituency No. 93. Democratic General Assembly president Ranganath Sharma was also defeated in Kathmandu Constituency No. 5. Dilliraman Regmi of the Nepali Rastriya Congress and Bhadrakali Mishra of Nepal Praja Parishad (Mishra) were also defeated. Tanka Prasad Acharya was defeated in from Kathmandu Constituency No. 5.[4][12]

PartyVotes%Seats
Nepali Congress666,89837.2374
Nepal Rashtrabadi Gorkha Parishad305,11817.0319
Samyukta Prajatantra Party177,4089.905
Communist Party of Nepal129,1427.214
Prajatantrik Mahasabha59,8963.340
Nepal Praja Parishad (Mishra)59,8203.341
Nepal Praja Parishad (Acharya)53,0382.962
Tarai Congress36,1072.020
Nepali Rastriya Congress12,7070.710
Independents291,24716.264
Total1,791,381100.00109
Registered voters/turnout4,246,468–
Source: Nohlen et al

Aftermath

The speaker of the first House of Representatives was Krishna Prasad Bhattarai from Nepali Congress.[13] The term of the parliament started from 27 May 1959 and it was dissolved on 15 December 1960.

See also

References
  1. Joshi, Bhuwan Lal; Rose, Leo E. (1966). Democratic Innovations in Nepal: A Case Study of Political Acculturation. University of California Press. p. 295.
  2. Devkota, Grishma Bahadur (1976). Nepalko Rajnitik Darpan II (in Nepali). Bhattarai Bandhu Prakashan. p. 111.
  3. "केवल एक पार्टी प्रमुखले जितेका थिए पहिलो आमनिर्वाचन" [Only one party leader won the first general election]. देशसञ्चार (in Nepali). 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  4. Kafle, Chandra. "४५ दिन लगाएर गरिएको २०१५ सालको चुनाव" [The election of 2015 BS was conducted in 45 days]. Setopati (in Nepali). Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  5. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p629 ISBN 0-19-924958-X
  6. Nohlen et al., p624
  7. Rama Devi Pant (1959-04-04). "First general election of Nepal 1959" (PDF). The economic weekly. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  8. Parajulee, Ramjee P., 1955- (2000). The democratic transition in Nepal. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 46. ISBN 0-8476-9577-8. OCLC 41951317.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. Nohlen et al., p654
  10. "Timeline" (PDF). constitutionnet.org. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  11. Levin, Dov H. (2016-09-19). "Partisan electoral interventions by the great powers: Introducing the PEIG Dataset". Conflict Management and Peace Science. 36 (1): 88–106. doi:10.1177/0738894216661190. ISSN 0738-8942.
  12. Nepal, Jagat. Pāhilo Sāmsād : BP-Mahendra Takraaw. Kaṭhamandu: Sangrila Books. ISBN 978-9937-9053-6-7. OCLC 944022824.
  13. "'चक्रव्यूह'मा सभामुख, किन हुन्छ काण्डैकाण्ड ?". Janata Samachar (in Nepali). Retrieved 2020-06-18.
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