2017 Nepalese legislative election

The previous House of Representative, elected on May 1999, was dissolved by Gyanendra on advice of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on May 2002 in order to hold new elections. Elections could not take place due to the ongoing civil war which eventually led King Gyanendra to stage a royal coup on February 2005 after dismissing four Prime Ministers. Following the democracy movement of 2006, the King reinstated the earlier legislature. On 15 January 2007, the House of Representatives was replaced by an Interim Legislature. The Interim Legislature consisted both of members appointed by an agreement between the Seven Party Alliance and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

The Interim Legislature was followed by the first Constituent Assembly whose task was to form a new constitution. The failure of the assembly to write a constitution within the stipulated time led to the formation of the second Constituent Assembly which approved the Constitution of Nepal on 20 September 2015. After the promulgation of constitution, the second Constituent Assembly was converted into an unitary Legislature Parliament. The constitution set the tenure of the Legislature Parliament until 21 January 2018 or the date of filing of nomination for the House of Representatives, whichever is earlier.[4] Per this provision, the tenure of the Legislature Parliament ended on 14 October 2017.

A five-member Constituency Delineation Commission was formed under the chairmanship of former Supreme Court Justice Kamal Narayan Das to redraw the constituency boundaries to 165, a reduction from the 240 used in the 2013 elections. It submitted its report to the government on 30 August 2017.[5] The boundaries set by this commission will remain unchanged for the next 20 years as per Article 286 (12).

The 275 members of the legislature will be elected by two methods; 165 will be elected from single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting and 110 seats will be elected by closed list proportional representation from a single nationwide constituency.[6] Each voter will get separate ballot papers for the two methods. A party or electoral alliance must pass the election threshold of 3% of the overall valid vote to be allocated a seat under the proportional method.[7]

A total of 88 parties were granted ballot access under the proportional system. However, only 49 parties submitted list of proportional candidates.[11]

A left alliance comprising the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) and the Naya Shakti Party was announced with party unification to follow after the elections.[12] However, Naya Shakti Party left the alliance after its coordinator Baburam Bhattarai was not guaranteed an election ticket from his preferred constituency of Gorkha. He subsequently switched alliances in Gorkha. Other leftist parties like Rastriya Janamorcha and Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist–Leninist) have also joined this alliance in some constituencies.[13]

An alliance consisting of the center-left Nepali Congress, the Rastriya Prajantanra Party, the Rastriya Prajantanra Party (Democratic) and two Madhesh based parties, Federal Socialist Forum, Nepal and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal, was formed as a response to this left alliance but was limited to select places.[14] Rastriya Prajatantra Party allied with the left parties to defeat Nepali Congress candidate former Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula in Jhapa-3.[15]

Before the final phase of the election, starting 5 December, the border with India was closed at 22 points.[16] There have been over a hundred minor and major explosions in the run up to the elections targeting election assemblies and leaders.[17] A temporary police was killed in Dang from an explosion at an event attended by the Prime Minister.[18] Nepali Congress candidates Narayan Karki was injured in an targeted explosion to his vehicle in Udayapur while 11 people including former Health Minister Gagan Thapa were injured from an explosion in Kathmandu.[19]

Five parties, CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninst), Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Janata Party and Federal Socialist Forum, won at least one seat in first-past-the-post voting and crossed the three percent in proportional voting and were represented in the parliament. Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Naya Shakti Party, Rastriya Janamorcha and Nepal Workers Peasants Party did not reach the three percent threshold in proportional voting and were represented as independents in the parliament.

Party		Constituency			Proportional			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	CPN (Unified Marxist–Leninist)	3,082,277	30.68	80	3,173,494	33.25	41	121
	Nepali Congress	3,590,793	35.75	23	3,128,389	32.78	40	63
	CPN (Maoist Centre)[lower-alpha 1]	1,510,760	15.03	36	1,303,721	13.66	17	53
	Samajbadi Janata Party[lower-alpha 1]	–	–	–
	Janajagaran Party, Nepal[lower-alpha 1]	–	–	–
	Rastriya Janata Party Nepal	458,409	4.56	11	472,254	4.95	6	17
	Federal Socialist Forum, Nepal	527,924	5.26	10	470,201	4.93	6	16
	Bibeksheel Sajha Party	96,233	0.96	0	212,366	2.22	0	0
	Rastriya Prajatantra Party	118,318	1.18	1	196,782	2.06	0	1
	Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Democratic)	123,797	1.23	0	88,377	0.93	0	0
	Naya Shakti Party, Nepal	84,037	0.84	1	81,837	0.86	0	1
	Rastriya Janamorcha	70,014	0.70	1	62,133	0.65	0	1
	Nepal Workers Peasants Party	52,668	0.52	1	56,141	0.59	0	1
	Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist–Leninist)[lower-alpha 2]	69,115	0.69	0	41,270	0.43	0	0
	Jana Samajbadi Party, Nepal[lower-alpha 2]	13,067	0.14	0
	Nepal Federal Socialist Party	19,064	0.19	0	36,015	0.38	0	0
	Rastriya Janamukti Party	27,279	0.27	0	33,091	0.35	0	0
	Ekikrit Rastriya Prajatantrik Party (Nationalist)	34,765	0.35	0	28,835	0.30	0	0
	Nepali Janata Dal	8,750	0.09	0	22,049	0.23	0	0
	Sanghiya Loktantrik Rastriya Manch	17,017	0.17	0	21,610	0.23	0	0
	Bahujan Shakti Party	10,382	0.10	0	15,468	0.16	0	0
	Mongol National Organization	16,500	0.16	0	15,117	0.16	0	0
	Sanghiya Loktantrik Rastriya Manch (Tharuhat)	121	0.00	0	14,489	0.15	0	0
	Deshbhakta Janaganatantrik Morcha, Nepal	19,884	0.20	0	13,942	0.15	0	0
	Nepal Janata Party	3,387	0.03	0	9,310	0.10	0	0
	Janashakti Nepal	–	–	–	7,981	0.08	0	0
	Aamul Pariwartan Masiha Party Nepal	793	0.00	0	5,161	0.05	0	0
	Rastriya Mukti Andolan Nepal	1,550	0.02	0	4,275	0.04	0	0
	Nepa Rastriya Party	206	0.00	0	3,460	0.04	0	0
	Nepal Loktantrik Janata Congress	815	0.00	0	2,389	0.03	0	0
	Churebhavar Loktantrik Party	475	0.00	0	2,170	0.02	0	0
	Green Party Nepal	334	0.00	0	1,685	0.02	0	0
	Nepal Samabeshi Party	–	–	–	1,676	0.02	0	0
	Nepali Congress (B.P.)	2,679	0.03	0	1,608	0.02	0	0
	Nepalwad	37	0.00	0	1,547	0.02	0	0
	Nepal Sukumbasi Party (Democratic)	–	–	–	1,456	0.02	0	0
	Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist)	1,440	0.01	0	1,420	0.01	0	0
	Tamangsaling Loktantrik Party	77	0.00	0	1,397	0.01	0	0
	Nepal Yuwa Kisan Party	1,033	0.01	0	1,334	0.01	0	0
	Rastriya Samajwadi Party, Nepal	366	0.00	0	1,053	0.01	0	0
	Nepal Darshan	–	–	–	1,052	0.01	0	0
	Rastriya Yatharthawadi Party, Nepal	502	0.00	0	977	0.01	0	0
	Nepal Naulo Janwadi Party	75	0.00	0	976	0.01	0	0
	Rastriya Shiva Sena Party[lower-alpha 3]	157	0.00	0	946	0.01	0	0
	Rastriya Nagarik Party[lower-alpha 3]	25	0.00	0
	Yuwa Nepal Party	137	0.00	0	872	0.01	0	0
	Nepal Dalit Party	1,092	0.01	0	834	0.01	0	0
	Sanghiya Khumbuwan Democratic Party Nepal	408	0.00	0	744	0.01	0	0
	Deshbhakta Loktantrik Party	1,289	0.01	0	740	0.01	0	0
	Janaprajatantrik Party, Nepal	138	0.00	0	721	0.01	0	0
	Liberal Democratic Party	259	0.00	0	519	0.01	0	0
	Deshbhakta Samaj	92	0.00	0	434	0.00	0	0
	Hamro Party	89	0.00	0	426	0.00	0	0
	Nepal Loktantrik Janata Congress	815	0.00	0	–	–	–	0
	Bahujan Samaj Party Nepal	708	0.00	0	–	–	–	0
	Dalit, Muslim Janashakti Party	544	0.00	0	–	–	–	0
	Rastriya Yatharthabadi Party Nepal	502	0.00	0	–	–	–	0
	Lok Kalyankari Janata Party Nepal	496	0.00	0	–	–	–	0
	Rastriya Samajbadi Party Nepal	366	0.00	0	–	–	–	0
	Madhesh Terai Forum	152	0.00	0	–	–	–	0
	Nepali Greens	78	0.00	0	–	–	–	0
	Muskan Sena Nepal	22	0.00	0	–	–	–	0
	Independents	73,243	0.73	1	–	–	–	1
Invalid/blank votes			–	–		–	–	–
Total		10,045,555	100	165	9,544,744	100	110	275
Registered voters/turnout				–			–	–
Source: Election Commission

The governing Nepali Congress preferred the upper house to be elected by Single Transferable Voting System while the left parties preferred majority vote. Lack of consensus meant the Legislature Parliament disbanded on 14 October, as required by the constitution, without approving National Assembly Election Bill which included provisions to elect members of the upper house.[20]

According to Article 84 (8) of the Constitution of Nepal, at least one third of the total number of members elected to the Federal Parliament from each party must be women. Citing this provision, the Election Commission withheld announcing final results as the number of women each party needs to submit from their respective party lists could not be determined until the number of women in the upper house from each party was confirmed.

The government sent the National Assembly Election Ordinance to the President on 23 October 2017 with the provision that the upper house be elected using Single Transferable Voting System.[21] The ordinance was held by the president for two months citing lack of consensus, but was ultimately approved on 29 December 2017.[22] Another delay occurred because the electoral college for the election of the upper house includes members of the State Assemblies who, due to the absence of Chiefs of State, had not been able to take the oath of office until late January.