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The Election Commission, Nepal (; ''Nirvācana āyōg, Nēpāl'') is a constitutional body responsible for conducting and monitoring
elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
, as well as registering parties and
candidate A candidate, or nominee, is a prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position. For example, one can be a candidate for membership in a group (sociology), group or election to an offic ...
s and reporting election outcomes, in
Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
. It was born out of the 1950 revolution in Nepal, and was established in law in 1951, although it has been changed somewhat by law over time. It has six members who serve for six-year terms, as established by the Constitution of Nepal. During the Constituent Assembly elections in 2008, it was criticized for not fully upholding its duties, but was acknowledged to have managed the elections well nonetheless. The first election commissioner was Subarna Shumsher Rana in 1951.


History

The year 1950 was important in the history of Nepal: in that year, the Rana dynasty, which had controlled the government for exactly 104 years, was overthrown. The
coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
marked Nepal's first attempt at democracy; one of the primary goals of the revolution was to eventually establish the Nepalese Constituent Assembly. The democratic experiment was short-lived; in less than ten years,
King Mahendra Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev (; 11 June 1920 – 31 January 1972) was King of Nepal from 13 March 1955 until his death in 1972. He led the 1960 Nepal coup d'état, 1960 coup d'état, in which he dismissed the government, jailed other political ...
dissolved the government in favor of the Panchayat system. However, another major accomplishment was the establishment of the National Election Commission in 1951. The commission was declared by law to be independent of the government in 1966. This has been confirmed by Nepal's interim constitution in 2007.


Composition

It has five members, consisting of the Chief Election Commissioner and four others. The members serve for 6 years. In order to enforce its election guidelines, the commission employs a group of around 240,000 officials, mostly civil servants, to monitor elections. When the commission was established, the members were chosen by the King. In 1989, King Birendra's constitution declared that the Chief Election Commissioner would still be appointed by the king, but the others would not. The interim constitution further amended the body's composition in 2006: all five members were made under appointment of the Prime Minister. The new constitution of Nepal has made the provision of appointment of chief election commission and other members by the president on the recommendation of constitutional members


Criticism

The commission came under some criticism during the Constituent Assembly elections for failing to enforce the code of conduct during elections. It also failed to fully educate voters about the election. However, it was acknowledged to have helped the elections run smoothly overall. The commissions role was highly criticized in 2021 is being criticized for no decision in
Nepal Communist Party The Nepal Communist Party, abbreviated NCP (, ) was a communist party in Nepal that existed from 2018 to 2021. It was founded on 17 May 2018, from the unification of two Left-wing politics, leftist parties, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified M ...
and People's Socialist Party, Nepal dispute. However, Supreme Court took decision to re-establish Maoist-Centre and UML, commission gave no decision though signature of majority central committee members were submitted time and again by a faction. Same is the case for PSP-N.


References

{{Authority control Government of Nepal
Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
Government agencies established in 1951 Elections in Nepal 1951 establishments in Nepal