National Assembly (Nepal)

The National Assembly (Nepali: राष्ट्रिय सभा; Rāṣṭriya sabhā) is the upper house of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Nepal, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Assembly are established by Part 8 and 9 of the Constitution of Nepal. There are a total of 59 members: 8 members are elected from each of the seven provinces by an electoral college of each province, and three are appointed by the President on recommendation of the government.[1]

National Assembly

राष्ट्रिय सभा
Contiguous:
2nd Class 1, 1st Class 2, 1st Class 3 of the
National Assembly of Nepal
Emblem of Nepal
Type
Type
Leadership
Chairperson
Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, NCP
since 15 March 2018
Vice Chairperson
Shashikala Dahal, NCP
since 18 March 2018
Leader of the House
Leader of the Opposition
Surendra Pandey, NC
Structure
Seats59
Political groups
Government (50)
  •   Nepal Communist Party (50)[lower-alpha 1]

Opposition (9)

Length of term
6 years
Elections
56 members by indirect single transferable vote, 3 appointed by the President
Last election
23 January 2020 (Class 1)
Next election
2022 (Class 2); 2024 (Class 3); 2026 (Class 1)
Meeting place
International Convention Centre, Kathmandu, Nepal
Website
na.parliament.gov.np/np
Nepal
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Nepal
Constitution
Government

Executive:

Federal Parliament:

Judiciary:
Elections
Federalism
Administrative divisions
Foreign relations
Related topics
 Nepal portal

Members serve staggered six year terms such that the term of one-third members expires every two years.

History

The National Assembly was first provisioned by the "Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990", which replaced the old panchayat system of parliament with bicameral parliament.[2] The National Assembly under the 1990 Constitution was dissolved on 15 January 2007 and replaced by a unicameral Interim Legislature. Following two Constituent Assembly elections which also served as a unitary Legislature Parliament, the constitution, promulgated on 20 September, 2015, provisioned for a National Assembly as the upper house of the federal parliament.[3]

Maha Sabha

Mahasabha (Nepali: महासभा) was the upper house of the bicameral parliament of the Kingdom of Nepal during 1959 - 1962.[4]

The Revolution of 1951 made the process to enact a new constitution, which was able to transfer all executive powers back to the Shah kings from Rana regime.[5] King Mahendra was unable to resist the increasingly well-orchestrated political demands by the Nepali National Congress for a more democratic and representative government, and was forced to promulgate a new constitution.[5]

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1959 proclaimed on 12 February 1959, describes about Mahasabha (महासभा) as: "There shall be a Parliament which shall consist of His Majesty and two Houses, to be known respectively as the Senate (Maha Sabha) and the House of Representatives (Pratinidhi Sabha)" (Article No. 18, Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1959).[4]

The constitution of Kingdom of Nepal, 1959 (Rastriya Panchayat) lasted till 16 December 1962. On 16 December 1962, the new Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal, 1962 was proclaimed and the parliament of the Kingdom of Nepal became unicameral.[6] Mahasabha couldn't continue more than two years.

Rastriya Panchayat

Rastriya Panchayat was a constitution introduce on December 16, 1962 by King Mahendra. [7] A four-tier system of indirectly elected councils was established from the village to the national level.[8] The Rastriya Panchayat declared Nepal a Hindu state. The people's movement of 1990 brought an end to absolute monarchy and Panchayat system.

Membership

The qualifications for being a member of National Assembly are laid out in Article 87 of the constitution and National Assembly Election Act, 2017:

  • must be a citizen of Nepal
  • must be at least thirty-five years of age on date of nomination
  • must have name listed on voter list
  • should not have been convicted of a criminal offense involving moral turpitude
  • must not be disqualified by any Federal law
  • must not be holding any office of profit.

Election procedure

Each of the seven provinces elects 8 members each and Government of Nepal nominates 3 members and recommends to the President for approval.

The electoral college consists of members of the provincial assembly and chairperson/mayor and vice-chairperson/deputy mayor of the local bodies within the province. Each provincial assembly member's vote has a weightage of forty eight whereas each chairperson/mayor/vice-chairperson/deputy mayor's vote has a weightage of eighteen.

Out of the eight members from each province, three must be women, one must be a Dalit, and one must be a disabled person or from a minority community. Each elector gets four ballots: one for the three open seats, one for the three female seats, one for the dalit seat and one for the disabled or minority seat. The three open seats and the three female seats are filled by single transferable vote, the two other seats by FPTP.

The election is conducted by the Election Commission.[9]

Chairpersons
Chairpersons of the National Assembly
Name Party Took office Left office
Beni Bahadur Karki[10][11] Nepali Congress 1991 1999
Dr. Mohammad Mohsin[12] Rastriya Prajatantra Party August 1999 May 2002
Ganesh Prasad Timilsina Nepal Communist Party 15 March 2018 Incumbent
Vice-chairpersons of the National Assembly
Name Party Took office Left office
Aishwarya Lal Pradhananga Nepali Congress 1991 1993
Dilip Kumar Shahi Nepali Congress 1993 1997
Chiranjibi Prasad Rijal Nepali Congress 1997 2001
Ramprit Paswan CPN (Unified Marxist–Leninist) 2001 2003
Shashikala Dahal Nepal Communist Party 18 March 2018 Incumbent

Current membership by party
See also: 1st Federal Parliament of Nepal § Members
Party Members
Nepal Communist Party 50
Nepali Congress 6
People's Socialist Party, Nepal 3
Total 59
Province Seats held
Open Women Dalit D/M
Province No. 1
Province No. 2
Bagmati Province
Gandaki Province
Lumbini Province
Karnali Province
Sudurpashchim Province
Nominated

Notes
  1. 47 elected and 3 nominated

See also

References
  1. Article 86 (2) Constitution of Nepal
  2. "NEPAL: parliamentary elections Pratinidhi Sabha, 1991". archive.ipu.org.
  3. Jivanta Schottli, Subrata K. Mitra, Siegried Wolf (2015). A Political and Economic Dictionary of South Asia. Routledge. p. 258. ISBN 9781135355760.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. "The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1959" (PDF). www.constitutionnet.org/vl/item/constitution-kingdom-nepal-1959. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  5. "The Interim Constitution, 1951". www.couuntrystudies.us. U.S. Library of Congress. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  6. "Nepal-Salient Features of the New Constitution" (PDF). www.icwa.in. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 January 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  7. "The Panchayat Constitution, 1962". www.countrystudies.us. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  8. "The ideology of Nepal's Panchayati Raj" (PDF). www.arizona.openrepository.com. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  9. "IFES FAQs on Elections in Nepal: 2018 National Assembly Elections" (PDF).
  10. Limited, Europa Publications (July 9, 1994). "The Europa World Year Book: 1994". Europa Publications Limited – via Google Books.
  11. "The Fourth Parliamentary Election: A Study of the Evolving Democratic Process in Nepal". Institute for Integrated Development Studies. July 9, 2000 – via Google Books.
  12. "muslim elected chairman of hindu nepals upper house of parliament". ucanews.com.
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