Nepal - 2021 Elections
General elections were held in Nepal in two phases on 30 April and 10 May 2021, more than a year ahead of schedule, to elect the 275 members of the sixth House of Representatives, the lower house of the Federal Parliament of Nepal. On 20 December 2020, President Bidya Devi Bhandari — at the recommendation of the federal government headed by PM K.P. Sharma Oli — dissolved the House of Representatives (HoR), the lower House of Nepalese parliament, and declared the dates of the election to the HoR on 30 April and 10 May, 2021.
The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was formed on the eve of the elections in 2018 with the merger of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), headed by K.P. Sharma Oli, and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre), led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal. With the merger of the two parties, the NCP not only won close to a two-thirds majority in the HoR in 2018, but it also formed governments in six out of the seven provinces and most of the local bodies like the municipalities/village councils in the country.Initially, the two chairmen of the NCP had agreed that each of them would be Prime Minister of the country for two-and-half years during the five-year tenure of the government. Relations between the two chairmen, Oli and Dahal, of the NCP never remained smooth even after the merger of the two parties in 2018. The power tussle, especially between the two supremos, spoiled the working environment at all levels of administration.
Oli’s decision came after some lawmakers from his party registered a vote of no confidence against him in the 275-member lower house of parliament. NCP central committee member Bishnu Rijal said the the prime minister had lost support from the majority in the parliamentary party. “The prime minister has lost the majority in the parliamentary party, central committee and the secretariat of the party,” said Rijal.
Oli aide Rajan Bhattarai said the prime minister had acted in response to the backlash from his party, which had also asked him to consider quitting as its president. Politicians and others said the ruling party should have tried out other political combinations to run the country instead of calling an untimely election when its tourism-dependent economy has been battered by the pandemic.
Oli's announcement was followed by deployment of quick action forces across capital Kathmandu and other major Nepal cities and towns where protests broke out spontaneously. There were popular protests against the ruling party and the government due to their policy failures. China had been trying to ‘debt-trap’ Nepal, while the government fell easily to the trap. Recently there were demonstrations in the state capital Kathmandu asking for restoring the Hindu monarchy. Constant Chinese intrusion into the Nepali territory and the government’s hesitation to be tough on China has irked people.
Nepal’s 2015 charter does not give the prime minister the prerogative to dissolve parliament without exhausting alternatives, constitutional expert Bipin Adhikari said. “It is unconstitutional at the first sight,” he said, adding that the decision could be challenged in the Supreme Court, which may take a couple of weeks to decide its legality.
Nepal waas plunged into fresh political turmoil 22 May 2021 as President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved parliament and fixed general elections in November amid a worsening COVID-19 outbreak. The surprise announcement came after a presidential statement said neither the caretaker Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, nor opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, were able to demonstrate a majority to form a new government by the deadline set by Bhandari. “The president has dissolved the House of Representatives and ordered the first phase of general elections on November 12 and the second phase on November 19,” a presidential statement issued after midnight said.
Nepal's Supreme Court on 12 July 2021 canceled a snap election proposed by caretaker Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and reinstated parliament, allowing his rival Sher Behadur Deuba to try to win lawmakers' backing to set up a government. This will only be possible if parliamentarians who supported him before the dissolution of parliament continue to give him their allegiance. Assuming Deuba can secure majority support, the snap elections sought by Oli would not be necessary.
But pressing issues like the 14th general convention of the Nepali Congress planned for mid-December and the elections to 19 National Assembly seats decreased the chances of the country going to early elections, Nepali Congress leaders said. CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is a key leader of the ruling alliance, on 31 October 2021 ruled out the possibility of holding elections before the current federal House of Representatives completes its five-year term. “There is no possibility of holding early elections as the constitution has no such provision. The constitution and recent Supreme Court verdicts both do not allow us to schedule parliamentary elections early,” Dahal told reporters.
Last parliamentary elections were held in November-December 2017 and the new parliament first met on March 5, 2018. Technically, the country needs to go to the polls to elect a new parliament in November-December 2022. With the Election Commission announcing 26 October 2021 that it is going to conduct the National Assembly elections by mid-April 2022, the commission will ask the parties to register themselves for the elections.
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