Legislative elections is scheduled to be held in two phases on Nov 26 and Dec 07, 2017 to elect all 275 members of the 4th House of Representatives - the lower house of the Federal Parliament
The 275 members of the legislature will be elected by two methods; 165 will be elected from single-member constituencies by Fist Past The Post Voting and 110 seats will be elected by Closed List Proportional Representation from a single nationwide constituency
A total of 88 parties are contesting under the proportional system.
Millions of Nepalis vote on Sunday Nov 26,2017 in historic polls billed as a turning point for the impoverished Himalayan nation, hoping to end the ruinous instability that has plagued the country since the end of a bloody civil war a decade ago.
The two-phase elections for national and provincial parliaments are the first under a new post-war constitution born out of a peace deal that ended the 10-year Maoist insurgency in 2006 and set the country on a path from monarchy to democracy.
It took another nine years for the new charter to be agreed as a series of brittle coalition governments bickered over the country's future as a federal democratic state. Many hope that the elections, which will establish the country's first provincial assemblies, will bring and end to political turbulence and limit the impact of horse-trading in Kathmandu.
"We've never seen a government last five years. If it does there will be stable policies and it will be easier to work," said Amir Dhoj Thapa from Chautara, a town east of Kathmandu that votes Sunday.
"We have big hopes for this election."
Around 3.2 million people across the north of the country, including areas badly hit by a devastating earthquake two years ago, are eligible to vote in Sunday's first phase.
The more populous south will vote in 10 days time. Nepal's constitution, finally passed in 2015, lays out a sweeping overhaul of the political system and aims to devolve power away from the central government to seven newly created provinces.
Rules laid out in the new charter will weed out some fringe parties from the parliaments and raises the bar for ousting a prime minister, leading to hopes that the next government could be the first to last a full term.
However, analysts warn that the changes could be limited, with the three parties that have dominated the political stage since the end of the conflict expected to take the lion's share of seats at the national and provincial level.
The Maoist Party of the former rebels has formed an electoral alliance with the communist CNP-UML, fielding candidates jointly in key races.
The powerful bloc has left the ruling party, the centrist Nepali Congress, on the back foot, forced to look to smaller parties in a bid to remain in power.
How does the voting work?
Each voter will be given two ballot papers for the two methods (FPTP and PR). A party has to cross the election threshold of 3 percent of the overall valid vote to be allocated a seat under the PR method.
Forms of government
A multi-party, federal democratic republic and parliamentary form of government will be in effect.
Federal parliament (HoR+NA) will elect a prime minister, who is the real executive head. The leader of the party that wins a simple majority is invited to form the government.
Members of the HoR are elected for a five-year term.
The National Assembly (NA) is a permanent body, with 56 members chosen by an electoral college consisting of PA members and village and municipal executive members. Three members are nominated by the president. It has a term of six years, with one-third of its members retiring every two years on a rotational basis.
The president and vice president are constitutional posts with nominal power. They are elected by an electoral college formed by the HoR, NA and PA members.
The members of the PA choose chief ministers to run the respective provinces.
A total of 753 local units, spread across 77 districts in seven provinces, have been elected to run the village and municipal administration.
The main political parties
- Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Maoist-Leninist)
- Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)
- Nepali Congress party
- Rastriya Prajatantra Party
- Nepal Sadbhawana Party
- Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal
- Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum (The Federal Socialist Forum)
- Naya Shakti Party (New Force Party)
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