2023 Nepalese vice presidential election

Last updated
2023 Nepalese vice presidential election
Flag of Nepal.svg
  2018 17 March 2023 (2023-03-17)2028 
Registered881
 
Candidate Ram Sahaya Yadav Asta Laxmi Shakya Mamata Jha
Party PSP-N CPN (UML) Janamat Party
Electoral vote30,32816,3282,537
Percentage61.59%33.16%5.15%

Vice President before election

Nanda Kishor Pun
Maoist Centre

Elected Vice President

Ram Sahaya Yadav
PSP-N

The election to elect the third vice president of Nepal was held on 17 March 2023. [1]

Contents

The term of the incumbent vice president, Nanda Kishor Pun, first elected in 2015, was set to expire on 17 March 2023. He was term-limited and could not seek re-election, with the Constitution of Nepal barring him from doing so. [2] [3]

As Article 70 of the Constitution prohibits the vice president of being from the same sex and community as the president, and with Ram Chandra Poudel, a Khas Arya male, elected president, only candidates who were from non Khas Arya ethnicity or female were allowed to file their nominations for the election. [4]

Electoral process

The Vice President of Nepal is elected by the majority of the votes of all members of the electoral colleges. If no candidate is elected, a second round is held between the top two candidates of the first round, under the same majority. As the latter is of the total votes including blank and invalid ones as well as abstentions, it is possible no candidate is elected in the first and second rounds. A third may then be held with the same candidates as in the second. The candidate with the majority of valid votes is then elected vice president. [5]

Part 6, Article 64 of the Constitution of Nepal 2015 sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:

  1. A person shall be eligible to be president if he/she fulfils the following qualifications:
    • He/she is eligible to be a member of the Federal Parliament.
    • He/she has attained at least 45 years of age, and
    • Is not ineligible by any law.
  2. Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (1), a person who has already been elected president for two terms, shall not be eligible to be a presidential candidate for the presidential election thereafter.

Election schedule

The Election Commission announced the schedule for the vice presidential elections on 30 January 2023. [6]

Vice-presidential election schedule
22 FebruaryPublication of initial electoral roll
22 – 24 FebruaryClaims and scrutiny on electoral roll
24 FebruaryPublication of final electoral roll
9 MarchPresidential election
11 MarchNomination of candidates
11 – 12 MarchScrutiny on nominations
12 MarchPublication of final list of nominations
17 MarchDate of election

Electoral college

The electoral college is composed in 2023 of 881 members, of which 331 are from the federal parliament and 550 from the provincial assemblies, with a vote "weight" of 79 and 48 each, respectively. While the federal parliament is made of 275 members from the lower house and 59 from the upper one, 2 members of the lower house were unable to be registered in the electoral college because of a judicial affair and a third one died, thus lowering the electoral college total from the normal number of 884 to 881, and the grand total of weighted votes from 52,786 to 52,549. [7] [8]

Electoral college composition

Composition [9]
PartyPratinidhi SabhaRastriya SabhaPradesh SabhaTotal electors

Nepali Congress 88 [lower-alpha 1] 10175273

CPN (UML) 7918162259

CPN (Maoist Centre) 311685132

CPN (Unified Socialist) 1082543

Rastriya Prajatantra Party 1402842

People's Socialist Party 1132337

Janamat Party 601622

Rastriya Swatantra Party 190019

Loktantrik Samajwadi Party 411217

Nagarik Unmukti Party 401216

Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party 1034

Rastriya Janamorcha 1113
Nepal Socialist Party 1023

Hamro Nepali Party 0022

Independent 3249
Total272 [lower-alpha 2] 59550881

Electoral college vote value composition

PartyPratinidhi SabhaRastriya SabhaPradesh SabhaTotal votesPercentage

Nepali Congress 6,9527908,40016,14230.72

CPN (UML) 6,2411,4227,77615,43929.38

CPN (Maoist Centre) 2,4491,2644,0807,79314.83

CPN (Unified Socialist) 7906321,2002,6224.99

Rastriya Prajatantra Party 1,10601,3442,4504.66

People's Socialist Party 8692371,1042,2104.21

Rastriya Swatantra Party 1501001,5012.86

Janamat Party 47407681,2422.36

Loktantrik Samajwadi Party 316795769711.85

Nagarik Unmukti Party 31605768921.70

Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party 7901442230.42

Rastriya Janamorcha 7979482060.39
Nepal Socialist Party 790961750.33

Hamro Nepali Party 0096960.18

Independent 2371581925871.12
Total21,4884,66126,40052,549100

Candidates

On 11 March, a total of four candidates filed their nominations for the vice-presidential election. [10] Three candidacies were filed from the ruling eight-party alliance; Ram Sahaya Yadav and Pramila Yadav of the PSPN and Mamata Jha of the Janamat Party. [11] The opposition CPN (UML) put forward party vice-chair, Astalaxmi Shakya as its vice-presidential candidate. [12]

Complaints were lodged against the candidacy of Ram Sahaya Yadav, by both the CPN (UML) and Janamat Party candidates, claiming the candidacy by Yadav is against the constitutional and legal provisions, as the constitution calls for the president and vice president to be of different genders or community. The electoral commission had initially announced that it was interpreting this as meaning vice president candidates had to be of both different gender and different community, prompting the PSPN to also propose the candidacy of Pramila Yadav. [13] [14] However, the Election Commission eventually changed opinion and quashed the complaints, ruling that Yadav's candidacy was lawful by concluding that legal provisions only require the president and the vice president to be from a different gender or a different community. [15] Following this, the PSPN decided to withdraw the candidacy of Pramila Yadav. [16]

People's Socialist Party, Nepal

CandidateBornPositions heldProvinceAnnouncedRef

Ram Sahaya Yadav
24 July 1970 (age 53)
Bara, Madhesh
Madhesh 9 March 2023 [17]

Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist)

CandidateBornPositions heldProvinceAnnouncedRef
Astalaxmi Shakya 30 September 1953 (age 70)
Kathmandu, Bagmati
Bagmati 11 March 2023 [18]

Janamat Party

CandidateBornPositions heldProvinceAnnouncedRef

Mamata Jha
1968 (age 5556)
Madhesh
N/A Madhesh 11 March 2023 [19]

Results

Results [20] [21]
CandidatePartyVotesTotal
votes
 %
FederalProvincialTotal
Ram Sahaya Yadav PSP-N 18432951330,32861.59
Asta Laxmi Shakya CPN (UML) 10416927316,32833.16
Mamata Jha Janamat 2315382,5375.15
Pramila Yadav (withdrawn) PSP-N 011480.10
Valid votes31151482549,24199.52
Blank and invalid votes0441920.48
Total31151882949,433100
Registered voters / turnout33155088152,54994.10

See also

Notes

  1. excluding 1 suspended MP
  2. excluding 2 vacant seats and 1 suspended MP

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