General elections were held in Nepal on 9 May 1981 to elect members of the
Rastriya Panchayat
Rastriya Panchayat was the official legislature (parliament) during the Panchayat regime of Nepal that effectively functioned from 1960 to 1990. Its head office was at the ''"Gallery Baithak"'' in Singha Durbar, Kathmandu. In the 1980s, it co ...
. 80% of the seats were elected through adult universal suffrage; this was the first election through universal suffrage held in Nepal in 22 years. However,
political parties
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...
were banned at the time, and the main underground opposition forces (the Nepali Congress and various
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
groups) called for a boycott of the election.
Shaha, Rishikesh
Rishikesh Shah (May 16, 1925 – November 13, 2002) was a Nepalese writer, politician and human rights activist.New Delhi: Manohar Publications, 1990. p. 106-107.
Panchayat system
Panchayat ( ne, पञ्चायत) was a partyless political system incepted by King Mahendra by sidelining the Nepali Congress government of B. P. Koirala on 15 December 1960 AD (1st Poush 2017 BS). He introduced the partyless Panchayat sys ...
was held and approved. In December, an amendment to the constitution was passed by King Birendra creating direct elections and allowing for the election of the prime minister.
The election were the first to be held after the constitutional amendment. In total there were 112 elected seats, whilst 28 were appointed by the King. According to official reports, 63% of the eligible voters took part in the polls. However, there were some inconsistencies in the report of voting numbers. Voter turnout was 52.2%. There were 7,793,119 eligible voters for this election.
Constituencies
40 out of the 75
districts of Nepal
Districts in Nepal are second level of administrative divisions after provinces. Districts are subdivided in municipalities and rural municipalities. There are seven provinces and 77 districts in Nepal.
After the state's reconstruction of admi ...
formed two-member constituencies whilst the less populated 35 districts formed single-member constituencies.
Shaha, Rishikesh
Rishikesh Shah (May 16, 1925 – November 13, 2002) was a Nepalese writer, politician and human rights activist.New Delhi: Manohar Publications, 1990. p. 108. The 15 mountain districts were all single-member constituencies. The hill districts elected 57 seats, the inner-terai districts eight seats and the terai districts 32 seats.
Campaign
Initially there were 1,451 total candidates, of whom 353 later withdrew. The 122 seats in the
Rastriya Panchayat
Rastriya Panchayat was the official legislature (parliament) during the Panchayat regime of Nepal that effectively functioned from 1960 to 1990. Its head office was at the ''"Gallery Baithak"'' in Singha Durbar, Kathmandu. In the 1980s, it co ...
were contested by 1,096 candidates. Virtually all candidates campaigned on slogans such as "God and Motherhood", portraying themselves as opponents of corruption and inflation.Panday, Devendra Raj. Nepal in 1981: Stagnation Amidst Change ', published in ''Asian Survey'', Vol. 22, No. 2, A Survey of Asia in 1981: Part II, (Feb., 1982), pp. 155-162. With the absence of organized political parties in the election, the campaign was rather low-scale. Mass rallies were not held, not even in Kathmandu. Most candidates relied heavily on door-to-door campaigning and canvassing through family, caste and ethnic networks. Candidates also used posters and vehicles with loudspeakers. The spending ceiling of each candidate was fixed at 30,000 Nepalese rupees.Gurung, Harka. The Sociology of Elections in Nepal, 1959 to 1981 ', published in ''Asian Survey'', Vol. 22, No. 3, (Mar., 1982), pp. 304-314.
70 of the candidates in the election previously ran in the 1959 election. Of those candidates 29 ran as independents, 18 for the Nepali Congress, 8 for the
Samyukta Prajatantra Party Samyukta Prajatantra Party Nepal ( ne, संयुक्त प्रजातन्त्र पार्टी नेपाल, translation: United Democracy Party Nepal) was a political party in Nepal. The party was led by Kunwar Inderjit Singh. ...
, 6 for the
Nepal Rashtrabadi Gorkha Parishad Nepal Rashtrabadi Gorkha Parishad (Nepal Nationalist Gorkha Council), a pro-monarchy political party in Nepal. The party was founded in 1951 by members of the erstwhile Rana dynasty. The party was led by Bharat Shamsher JBR and MG Mrigendra Shamshe ...
, 6 for the Praja Parishad, and 1 for the Tarai Congress. 17 of the candidates won in the 1981 election.
Candidates had to pay a security deposit of 1,500 Nepalese rupees in order to contest the election.
Results
The incumbent prime minister, Surya Bahadur Thapa, contested and was elected from the Dhankuta district. He got 40,546 votes in total. Two pre-''panchayat'' prime ministers contested the election, Matrika Prasad Koirala and Dr. K.I. Singh. Matrika Prasad Koirala contested in the Morang district. He was supported, unofficially, by Surya Bahadur Thapa. Koirala did however lose the election, whilst K.I. Singh was elected.
Shaha, Rishikesh
Rishikesh Shah (May 16, 1925 – November 13, 2002) was a Nepalese writer, politician and human rights activist.New Delhi: Manohar Publications, 1990. p. 111.
Overall, the result was a setback for the ruling elite. Although all candidates were officially independents, various candidates were well known as having the backing of the government. In total about 70% of the "official" candidates lost their seats. In the elected Rastriya Panchayat, there were 57 newcomers to the assembly.
The defeats of the government endorsed side was partially due to divisions inside the government endorsed camp. In Morang district the royal house and the prime minister supported opposing candidates, eventually resulting in the defeat for both.
The candidate who received the highest number of votes was
Hem Bahadur Malla
Hem Bahadur Malla was an important Cabinet Minister of the Rastriya Mahashabna Party in Nepal, and founder and Senior Vice President of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (''National Democratic Party'') in Nepal until his death.
Political care ...
, a cabinet minister. Malla got 76,720 votes. The elected member with the lowest number of votes was
Tej Bahadur Bham
Tej (from pronounced ; ; ) is a honey wine, like mead, that is brewed and consumed in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It has an alcohol content generally ranging from 7 to 11%. It is often home processed and consists of three main ingredients; honey, wate ...
Prakash Chandra Lohani
Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani ( ne, डा .प्रकाशचन्द्र लोहनी) (born 21 April 1944) is a Nepalese politician, economist and member of the ARPPR.
He has served as a Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs ...
Makwanpur
Makwanpur District( ne, मकवानपुर जिल्ला; , a part of Bagmati Province, earlier a part of Narayani Zone, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Hetauda as its district headquarter, as well as ...
Bhaktapur
, motto = ne, पुर्खले सिर्जेको सम्पत्ती, हाम्रो कला र संस्कृति , lit=Creation of our ancestors, our heritage and culture
, image_map ...
).
The Chhetri were the largest ethnic group in the Rastriya Panchayat with 41 members elected. Twenty-eight women candidates contested the election, out of whom two were elected; Nani Mainya Dahal and Bhadra Kumari Ghale. Dahal, a relatively unknown person in Nepalese politics at the time, swept the Kathmandu district polls. Her election was seen as a mistrust vote against the establishment.