The government of Nepal has recommended Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal as a member of the upper house of the federal parliament, the National Assembly. The Cabinet has decided to recommend Minister Aryal, who is originally from Gulmi district, to the President for appointing him as the National Assembly lawmaker in a vacant post of the upper house. Aryal’s name has been proposed for a seat of an expert member in the National Assembly.
The 59-member National Assembly, which serves as the permanent House, has a constitutional provision for three people to be appointed as members by the President at the recommendations of the Council of Ministers. As per the constitutional provision, the National Assembly functions as the upper house of the federal parliament and the term of its members is six years. It is to be noted that one-third of National Assembly members were elected on January 25 this year.
Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which emerged as the largest party, has won 125 seats in the House of Representatives (HoR) through the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, and in the PR system, the RSP has won 57 seats. The list has 48 women and 9 men. Of the selected individuals, 17 are from the Khas-Arya cluster, 16 from the Indigenous nationalities, 9 from the Madheshi community, 8 from the Dalit community, 4 from the Tharu community, and 3 from the Muslim cluster. The party obtained 125 seats in the direct category, tallying its total seats to 182, which is just two seats short of a two-thirds majority.
A total of 14 women candidates have been elected to the HoR under the FPTP electoral system, accounting for 8.5 per cent of the FPTP seats. Of them, 13 are elected from the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and one from the Nepali Congress. No women candidates from other parties secured victory under the FPTP system.
Now, the HoR of Nepal has a total of 96 women members, which brings the total women percentage to 35%. Nepal mandates at least 33% female representation in federal and provincial parliaments, largely achieved through a mixed electoral system combining first-past-the-post and proportional representation
