Wikipedia

2023 Nepalese vice presidential election

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

2023 Nepalese vice presidential election
← 2018 17 March 2023 (2023-03-17) 2028 →
Registered881
 
Candidate Ram Sahaya Yadav Asta Laxmi Shakya Mamata Jha
Party PSP-N CPN (UML) Janamat
Electoral vote 30,328 16,328 2,537
Percentage 61.59% 33.16% 5.15%
Vice President before election

Nanda Kishor Pun
Maoist Centre

Elected Vice President

Ram Sahaya Yadav
People's Socialist Party, Nepal (2020)

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

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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

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

Vice-presidential election schedule
22 February Publication of initial electoral roll
22 – 24 February Claims and scrutiny on electoral roll
24 February Publication of final electoral roll
9 March Presidential election
11 March Nomination of candidates
11 – 12 March Scrutiny on nominations
12 March Publication of final list of nominations
17 March Date of election

Electoral college

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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

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Composition[9]
Party Pratinidhi Sabha Rastriya Sabha Pradesh Sabha Total electors

Nepali Congress 88[a] 10 175 273

CPN (UML) 79 18 162 259

CPN (Maoist Centre) 31 16 85 132

CPN (Unified Socialist) 10 8 25 43

Rastriya Prajatantra Party 14 0 28 42

People's Socialist Party 11 3 23 37

Janamat Party 6 0 16 22

Rastriya Swatantra Party 19 0 0 19

Loktantrik Samajwadi Party 4 1 12 17

Nagarik Unmukti Party 4 0 12 16

Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party 1 0 3 4

Rastriya Janamorcha 1 1 1 3
Nepal Socialist Party 1 0 2 3

Hamro Nepali Party 0 0 2 2

Independent 3 2 4 9
Total 272[b] 59 550 881

Electoral college vote value composition

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Party Pratinidhi Sabha Rastriya Sabha Pradesh Sabha Total votes Percentage

Nepali Congress 6,952 790 8,400 16,142 30.72

CPN (UML) 6,241 1,422 7,776 15,439 29.38

CPN (Maoist Centre) 2,449 1,264 4,080 7,793 14.83

CPN (Unified Socialist) 790 632 1,200 2,622 4.99

Rastriya Prajatantra Party 1,106 0 1,344 2,450 4.66

People's Socialist Party 869 237 1,104 2,210 4.21

Rastriya Swatantra Party 1501 0 0 1,501 2.86

Janamat Party 474 0 768 1,242 2.36

Loktantrik Samajwadi Party 316 79 576 971 1.85

Nagarik Unmukti Party 316 0 576 892 1.70

Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party 79 0 144 223 0.42

Rastriya Janamorcha 79 79 48 206 0.39
Nepal Socialist Party 79 0 96 175 0.33

Hamro Nepali Party 0 0 96 96 0.18

Independent 237 158 192 587 1.12
Total 21,488 4,661 26,400 52,549 100

Candidates

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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

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Candidate Born Positions held Province Announced Ref

Ram Sahaya Yadav 		(1970-07-24) 24 July 1970 (age 54)
Bara, Madhesh 		Madhesh 9 March 2023 [17]

Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist)

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Candidate Born Positions held Province Announced Ref
Astalaxmi Shakya (1953-09-30) 30 September 1953 (age 71)
Kathmandu, Bagmati 		Bagmati 11 March 2023 [18]

Janamat Party

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Candidate Born Positions held Province Announced Ref

Mamata Jha 		1968 (age 55–56)
Madhesh 		N/A Madhesh 11 March 2023 [19]

Results

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Results[20][21]
Candidate Party Votes Total
votes 		%
Federal Provincial Total
Ram Sahaya Yadav PSP-N 184 329 513 30,328 61.59
Asta Laxmi Shakya CPN (UML) 104 169 273 16,328 33.16
Mamata Jha Janamat 23 15 38 2,537 5.15
Pramila Yadav (withdrawn) PSP-N 0 1 1 48 0.10
Valid votes 311 514 825 49,241 99.52
Blank and invalid votes 0 4 4 192 0.48
Total 311 518 829 49,433 100
Registered voters / turnout 331 550 881 52,549 94.10

See also

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Notes

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

References

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  1. ^ "Republic set to elect its third Vice President today". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  2. ^ Says, Mayorge. "Part-6 President and Vice-President – Nepal Law Commission". Retrieved 2021-06-06.
  3. ^ "History & Background". Office of the President of Nepal. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
  4. ^ Service, Himalayan News (2023-03-11). "Nomination filing for vice-presidential election today". The Himalayan Times. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  5. ^ Constitution
  6. ^ "राष्ट्रपति तथा उपराष्ट्रपतिको निर्वाचन मिति घोषणा सम्बन्धमा" (PDF). Election Commission (Nepal) (in Nepali). 30 January 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  7. ^ Republica. "EC publishes voters list for presidential election". My Republica. Retrieved 22 February 2023..
  8. ^ Republica. "MP Arun Chaudhary, who was granted clemency by Prez, released from jail". My Republica. Retrieved 22 February 2023..
  9. ^ Republica. "President's Election: Filing of nomination papers today". My Republica. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  10. ^ "Four candidates file nomination for Vice President". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  11. ^ "Ruling alliance and UML pick vice presidential candidates". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  12. ^ "Astalaxmi Shakya files candidacy for Vice President". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  13. ^ "UML lawmaker files complaint against vice-presidential candidate Ram Sahay Yadav". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  14. ^ "Mamata Jha lodges complaint with Election Commission against Yadav". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  15. ^ "Election Commission retains candidacy of Ram Sahay Yadav". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  16. ^ "प्रमिलाकुमारी यादवको उपराष्ट्रपति उम्मेदवारी फिर्ता गराउने तयारी". ekantipur.com (in Nepali). Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  17. ^ Republica. "Supporting Ram Sahay, Pramila Yadav withdraws her candidacy for vice presidency". My Republica. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
  18. ^ diwakar (2023-03-11). "Vice presidential election: UML fields Asta Laxmi Shakya as the ruling alliance prepares multiple nominations - OnlineKhabar English News". Retrieved 2023-03-16.
  19. ^ Republica. "Mamata Jha is Janamat Party's candidate for vice president". My Republica. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
  20. ^ "Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav elected Vice President".
  21. ^ Republica. "Yadav elected as Nepal's new Vice President". My Republica. Retrieved 17 March 2023..
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