KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 29
Considering the number of women elected to the House of Representatives and provincial assemblies, it appears that FPTP stands for Female Participation Too Poor.
The counting of votes for elections held under the first-pastthe-post system is almost over and results of 159 (out of 165) HoR seats and 315 (out of 330) PA constituencies have been announced, but only eight women have been elected to the HoR and 15 to provincial assemblies.
The Nepali Congress has won 53 HoR seats so far, but only one of them has gone to a woman; three women of the 42 UML lawmakers are women; one of the 17 CPN-Maoist Centre lawmakers is a woman; one of the three lawmakers of the Nagrik Unmukti Party is a woman; and two of the seven Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmakers are women.
The main reason for so few women lawmakers is that parties had given tickets to only a handful of women. The Rastriya Swatantrata Party had nominated 12 women candidates for the House of Representatives, the UML 11, the CPN-MC 8, the JSP-N 7, the NC 5, and the CPN (US) and the Rastriya Janamorcha one each.
According to the data released by the EC, 2,412 candidates were nominated by political parties for 165 seats in the House of Representatives. Only 225 of them were women. Women's participation in provincial assembly polls was equally abysmal.
Out 3,224 candidates for 330 seats in provincial assemblies, only 280 women were women. As many as 505 women were nominated for HoR and PA under the PR system.
Handful of women MPs
Only eight women have been elected to the House of Representatives under the first-pastthe-post system. They are:
• Toshima Karki of the Rastriya Swatantra Party won from Lalitpur-3
• Sobita Gautam of the RSP won from Kathmandu-2
• Juli Kumari Mahato of the CPN-UML was elected from Dhanusha-3
• Bidhya Bhattarai of the CPN- UML won from Kaski-2
• The CPN-UML's Jwalakumari Sah was elected from Bara-3
• Ranjita Shrestha Chaudhary of the Nagrik Unmukti Party won from Kailali-1
• Sita Gurung of the Nepali Congress won from Terhathum-1
• Rekha Sharma of the CPN-Maoist Centre won from Dang-2
15 women elected to PA
• Ranikumari Tiwari of Lokatantrik Samajbadi Party-Nepal won from Mahottari-3(B)
• Shardadevi Thapa of CPN-UML won from Mahottari-1(A)
• Sita Kumari Sundas of CPN-UML won from Syangja-1(A)
• Sarita Kumari Sah of NC won from Mahottari-2(B)
• Sabina Bajagain of RPP won from Jhapa-1(B)
• Vechi Lungeli of CPN (US) won from Sarlahi-1(B)
• Rama Ale Magar of CPN (US) won from Kathmandu-10(B)
• Khinu Langwa (Limbu) of CPN (US) won from Ilam 1(A)
• Radhika Tamang of CPN-MC won from Nuwakot 1(A)
• Kumari Muktan of CPN-MC won from Makawanpur 2(B)
• Krishna KC of CPN-MC won from Banke 1(A)
• Masina Khadka Bhandari of NC won from Sindhupalchowk 1(A)
• Hariprabha Khadgi of NC won from Kathmandu 6(A)
• Padma Jisi Shrestha of NC won from Nawalparasi (East
A version of this article appears in the print on November 30, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
