RSP Finalises 57 PR Lawmakers

The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), the largest party in the newly elected House of Representatives, on Sunday, March 15, finalised the names of 57 lawmakers to be nominated under the proportional representation (PR) system.

A meeting of the party’s secretariat decided to submit the list — comprising 48 women and nine men — to the Election Commission in line with constitutional requirements. The names will not be made public until the commission verifies them, party spokesperson Manish Jha said.

The selection must follow an inclusive framework, ensuring representation of women, indigenous nationalities, Madhesis, Dalits, Tharus, Muslims and people from backward regions. The constitution also requires political parties to ensure at least 33 percent women’s representation in the federal parliament.

RSP will have 182 lawmakers in the new House. As the party has no representation in the Upper House, at least one-third of its lawmakers —61 members— must be women. Since 13 women from the party won seats under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, it needed to nominate 48 women through the PR list.

According to Jha, the list includes 17 from the Khas Arya group, 16 indigenous nationalities, nine Madhesis, eight from the Dalit community, four Tharus and three Muslims.

In the March 5 parliamentary elections, RSP won 125 seats under the FPTP system. The Nepali Congress secured 18 seats, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) nine, the Nepal Communist Party eight, the Shram Sanskriti Party three and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party one. Independent candidate Mahabir Pun won from Myagdi.

Nepal’s Lower House has 275 members — 165 elected directly under the FPTP system and 110 through the PR system.

In the PR category, RSP secured 57 seats with 5.18 million votes. Nepali Congress won 20 seats, CPN (UML) 16, the Nepal Communist Party nine, and Shram Sanskriti and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party four seats each. RSP fell just two short of the two-thirds majority in the new House.

“The commission itself will publish the names after verification,” Jha said.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), the third-largest party in parliament, finalised the names of its 16 PR lawmakers on Saturday.

Under Nepal’s electoral law, a party must secure at least 3 percent of the valid PR votes to qualify for PR seats. It must also win at least one FPTP seat to gain recognition as a national party.

The new House will have six national parties. 

Political parties are required to submit a closed list of PR candidates to the Election Commission before the election, and all parties are expected to finalise their PR nominations by Sunday evening, March 15—the deadline set by the commission.