Heavyweights Fall, But Stereotypes Remain: Women's Direct Representation in Parliament Still Below 9%

With the final vote count for the House of Representatives nearing completion, only 14 women have been directly elected to the federal parliament so far, according to election results available through Sunday evening.

While the number of women elected directly this time is higher than in the parliamentary elections of 2022 and 2017, it constitutes a mere 8.48 percent of the total seats. In the 2022 elections, nine women were directly elected, while only six won their seats directly in 2017.

The slight increase in numbers this year is largely attributed to the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which fielded a significant number of female candidates and saw most of them victorious. Of the 16 women the RSP ran for direct elections, 13 won their seats. In contrast, the Nepali Congress has so far only one female winner, bringing the total to 14.

Women's rights activists and politicians argue that the low number of elected women is a direct result of political parties nominating very few female candidates for direct seats. Dr. Binda Pandey, a leader of the CPN-UML, stated that parties remain hesitant to field women candidates. "Without a legal provision, parties will not comply," she said.

Over two and a half years ago, the Election Commission drafted a bill mandating that parties must field 33 percent women candidates for direct elections. When that law was not enacted, the Commission issued a directive to parties in last November to reserve one-third of their direct tickets for women. However, as the directive was not legally binding, parties ignored it.

"It is natural that the number of elected women is low when so few are nominated," Dr. Pandey remarked. For a party to field candidates in all 165 constituencies to meet a one-third quota, it would need to nominate at least 55 women—a condition no major party fulfilled.

Activist Raksha Bam noted that the number of female candidates for direct seats remains far below what is warranted by Nepal's constitution and the country's female population. Currently, the 33 percent representation of women in parliament is achieved through the proportional representation system. "Looking at the current context, we must view the results positively, but we need to focus more on increasing these numbers," Bam said. "There is still a large contingent that views women as weak. Even as men advocate for women's empowerment, they continue to occupy the space. This trend must end."

The RSP, considered as an alternative force in this election, stood out by nominating significantly more women than the traditional parties. Several of its female candidates defeated heavy-weight male opponents from other established parties.

The new parliament will see a range of women entrants, from Ranju Darshana in Kathmandu Constituency No. 1 to Sobita Gautam, who won with a massive margin from Chitwan-3.

In Morang Constituency No. 6 in Koshi Province, RSP candidate Rubina Acharya defeated Nepali Congress leader Dr. Shekhar Koirala by a substantial margin. While Koirala secured 12,850 votes, the 31-year-old Acharya garnered 55,513 votes, defeating him by a margin of 42,663 votes.

As of Sunday, only one woman from the Nepali Congress had been directly elected. Basana Thapa won the Dailekh Constituency No. 1 seat in Karnali Province with 12,372 votes.

By Sunday evening, the CPN-UML had secured seven seats, all won by men. The CPN (Maoist Centre) had also won seven seats, none of which went to a woman.

Other prominent female candidates faced defeat. In Eastern Rukum, Kusum Devi Thapa of the Nepali Congress finished third, managing only 3,081 votes in a constituency also contested by CPN (Maoist Centre) chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Similarly, in Chitwan Constituency No. 2, Nepali Congress candidate Minakumari Kharal lost to RSP president Rabi Lamichhane, securing 14,564 votes.

Among the RSP's winning female candidates, Binita Kathayat was an exception, finishing fifth in the Jumla constituency.

Journalist Babita Basnet observed that the victories of several women have broken existing stereotypes. "There was a common assumption that women candidates would lose against heavyweight male opponents," Basnet said. "Women were often fielded in such constituencies merely to meet a quota. But now, that notion has been shattered." She emphasized that to bring more women into parliament through direct elections, nominations themselves must first reach the 33 percent threshold.