HoR Elections: RSP Wins 37 Seats, Leads in 82

The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has won 37 constituencies and is leading in 82 others as results from Thursday’s House of Representatives elections point toward a potential landslide victory for the party.

The party has swept all 15 constituencies in the Kathmandu Valley — winning 10 in Kathmandu, three in Lalitpur and two in Bhaktapur.

RSP chairman Rabi Lamichhane won from Chitwan-2 by a margin of nearly 40,000 votes. The party’s prime ministerial face, Balendra Shah, is also leading former prime minister KP Sharma Oli by more than 38,000 votes.

RSP candidates have already secured victories in Morang-4, Morang-6, Dhanusha-3, Mahottari-1, Bara-3, Parsa-1, Kaski-2, Kaski-3, Syangja-1, Parbat-1, Rupandehi-2, Rupandehi-3, Rupandehi-4, Banke-1, Banke-3 and Kailali-1.

The Nepali Congress has won five constituencies and is leading in 11, while the CPN (UML) has secured two seats and is ahead in eight.

From the Nepal Communist Party, coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal has already won from Rukum (East)-1, while the party is leading in eight constituencies.

Independent candidate Mahabir Pun has won from Myagdi-1 with the backing of the RSP. 

Candidates from the Shram Sanskriti Party are leading in four constituencies, while Gyan Bahadur Shahi of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) is ahead in Jumla-1.

In the proportional representation (PR) vote count, the RSP has secured more than 100,000 votes out of nearly 200,000 counted so far. The Nepali Congress has received over 35,000 votes, the CPN (UML) nearly 26,000 and the RPP more than 10,000.

To qualify as a national party and secure seats under the PR system, a party must win at least one first-past-the-post seat and obtain at least 3 percent of the valid PR vote.

If the current trend continues, the RSP could secure up to 184 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives— a two-thirds majority.

Nepal voted on Thursday to elect the 275-member House of Representatives, the lower house of the Federal Parliament. Of the total seats, 165 are elected through the first-past-the-post system while 110 are allocated through proportional representation.

A party needs at least 138 seats to secure a majority and form the government. Winning 184 seats would grant a two-thirds majority, enabling constitutional amendments.

Nepal has witnessed such parliamentary dominance only once before. In the country’s first general election in 1959, the Nepali Congress won 74 of the 109 parliamentary seats, securing a two-thirds majority. BP Koirala became prime minister following the victory.

However, the government was short-lived. In December 1960, King Mahendra staged a coup, dismissing the elected government, dissolving parliament, suspending the constitution and banning political parties. Political leaders were jailed and Nepal entered a 30-year partyless Panchayat system.