National Assembly (Nepal)

The 1959 Constitution of Nepal established the Senate as the upper house of the first democratically elected parliament following the 1951 revolution. The parliament was inactive following the 1960 coup d'état and was replaced by the unicameral Rastriya Panchayat in 1962. After the 1990 revolution, the Constitution of 1990 replaced the Rastriya Panchayat with a bicameral parliament with the National Assembly as the upper house.^[3] The National Assembly under the 1990 Constitution was dissolved on 15 January 2007 and replaced by a unicameral Interim Legislature. Following two Constituent Assembly elections which also served as a unitary Legislature Parliament, the constitution, promulgated on 20 September 2015, provisioned for a National Assembly as the upper house of the federal parliament.^[4]

The qualifications for being a member of National Assembly are laid out in Article 87 of the constitution and the National Assembly Member Election Act, 2017:^[5]

• must be a citizen of Nepal
• must be at least thirty-five years of age on date of nomination
• must have name listed on voter list
• should not have been convicted of a criminal offense involving moral turpitude
• must not be disqualified by any Federal law
• must not be holding any office of profit.

Each of the seven provinces elects 8 members each and Government of Nepal nominates 3 members and recommends to the president for approval.

The electoral college consists of members of the provincial assembly and chairperson/mayor and vice-chairperson/deputy mayor of the local bodies within the province. Each provincial assembly member's vote has a weight of forty eight whereas each chairperson/mayor/vice-chairperson/deputy mayor's vote has a weight of eighteen.

Out of the eight members from each province, three must be women, one must be from the Dalit community, and one must be a disabled person or from a minority community. Each elector gets four ballots; one for the three open seats, one for the three female seats, one for the dalit seat and one for the disabled or minority seat. The three open and three female seats are filled by single transferable vote, the two other seats by FPTP.

The election is conducted by the Election Commission.^[6]

The key function of the National Assembly is to review, revise, and pass the legislation passed by the House of Representatives. The lower house focuses on lawmaking, while the upper house helps revise and refine the legislation before it is passed.

• List of current members of the Rastriya Sabha
• List of members of the National Assembly of Nepal
• Senate (Nepal)