Nepal Election Results & History (1959-2026): Seats by Party

Nepal's electoral history spans nine competitive national elections and one partyless interlude. The first came in 1959 (2015-16 BS) under a short-lived multiparty constitution; the most recent was the early general election of 5 March 2026 (Falgun 2082 BS), held months after the September 2025 Gen Z protests forced a change of government. Between 1960 and 1990 the country ran a partyless Panchayat system in which political parties were banned, so no multiparty general election was held for three decades.

The modern pattern of two-tier voting dates from the 2008 Constituent Assembly election. Since then, the lower house has combined First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) single-member constituencies with a closed-list Proportional Representation (PR) tier, so a party's final strength depends on both its constituency wins and its nationwide vote share. Understanding this split is essential to reading any Nepal election result, because a party can lead the FPTP count yet trail once PR seats are added, as the Nepali Congress found in 2017.

This page indexes every Nepal general election result, listing the winning parties, seat totals, turnout and the government that followed. The Election Commission of Nepal publishes the official results, cross-checked here against the Inter-Parliamentary Union's Parline database.

Nepal's first general election ran from 18 February to 3 April 1959 (Falgun 2015 - Chaitra 2015 BS) to fill a 109-seat House of Representatives. The Nepali Congress, led by Bishweshwar Prasad (B. P.) Koirala, swept 74 seats on 37.2% of the vote, making Koirala the country's first democratically elected prime minister. The royalist Nepal Rashtrabadi Gorkha Parishad came second with 19 seats, and the Communist Party of Nepal won four. Turnout was about 42.2%, with roughly 1.79 million votes cast from 4.25 million registered voters.

This first experiment with parliamentary democracy was brief. In December 1960 King Mahendra dismissed the Koirala government, dissolved parliament and banned political parties, replacing the system with the partyless Panchayat democracy formalised under the 1962 constitution. For nearly three decades the unicameral Rastriya Panchayat served as the legislature, first through indirect and later, after the 1980 referendum, through direct elections in which candidates stood as individuals rather than party nominees.

The 1980 referendum is a pivotal marker in this period: asked whether to keep a reformed Panchayat or adopt a multiparty system, voters backed the Panchayat by about 55% to 45%. The Panchayat system finally ended with the 1990 People's Movement (Jana Andolan), which restored multiparty democracy under a new constitution and set the stage for the 1991 general election. Because Panchayat-era polls were partyless, they are not counted among Nepal's multiparty general elections.

The 1991 Nepal general election, held on 12 May 1991 (Jestha 2048 BS), was the first multiparty vote since 1959 and the first under the 1990 constitution. Contesting 205 seats, the Nepali Congress won a clear majority with 110 seats on 37.75% of the vote, and Girija Prasad Koirala became prime minister. The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), or CPN (UML), emerged as the main opposition with 69 seats and 27.98% of the vote. Turnout was 65.15%.

The 1994 mid-term election on 15 November 1994 produced Nepal's first hung parliament. The CPN (UML) became the largest party with 88 seats, narrowly ahead of the Nepali Congress on 83, with the royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) taking 20. Man Mohan Adhikari of the UML formed a minority communist government - widely noted as one of the first democratically elected communist governments in a constitutional monarchy. Turnout was 61.86%. The instability of this hung house began a cycle of short-lived coalition governments.

The 1999 general election, held in two phases on 3 and 17 May 1999, restored a single-party majority. The Nepali Congress won 111 of 205 seats on 37.17% of the vote, and Krishna Prasad Bhattarai became prime minister. The CPN (UML) took 71 seats. Turnout was 65.79%. This was the last election held under the 1990 constitution before the Maoist insurgency and the 2005-06 political upheaval reshaped the state, and no general election was held again until the Constituent Assembly poll of 2008.

The 2008 Constituent Assembly election (CA-1), held on 10 April 2008, marked a decisive break with the past. Voters elected a 601-member assembly - 240 by FPTP, 335 by PR, and 26 nominated - tasked with writing a new constitution. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), fresh from the insurgency and peace process, stunned observers as the largest party with 229 seats, ahead of the Nepali Congress (115) and CPN (UML) (108). Turnout was around 60%. In its first sitting the assembly abolished the 240-year-old monarchy and declared Nepal a federal democratic republic; Ram Baran Yadav became the first president and Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' the first republican prime minister.

CA-1 failed to deliver a constitution within its extended term and was dissolved in 2012, forcing a fresh mandate. The 2013 Constituent Assembly election (CA-2) was held on 19 November 2013 for a 575-elected-member assembly (240 FPTP + 335 PR, plus later nominations). This time the results reversed: the Nepali Congress became the largest party with 196 seats, the CPN (UML) took 175, and the Maoists fell sharply to 80 seats. Turnout hit a record 79.82%. Sushil Koirala of the Nepali Congress led the government.

CA-2's central achievement was promulgating the Constitution of Nepal on 20 September 2015 (Ashwin 2072 BS), which established the current federal structure of seven provinces and a bicameral parliament. The two Constituent Assembly elections therefore bridge Nepal's transition from monarchy to federal republic.

The 2017 general election was the first held under the 2015 constitution, filling a 275-member House of Representatives (165 FPTP + 110 PR). Voting took place in two phases, on 26 November and 7 December 2017, with a turnout of 68.63%. A pre-poll left alliance between the CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist Centre) dominated the results and paved the way for their later (short-lived) merger into the Nepal Communist Party.

By total seats, the CPN (UML) won 121 (80 FPTP + 41 PR) on a 33.25% PR vote share, making it the largest party. The Nepali Congress came a distant second with 63 seats (23 FPTP + 40 PR) despite a comparable 32.78% PR vote - a striking illustration of how FPTP losses can outweigh a strong national vote. The CPN (Maoist Centre) took 53 seats. Among Madhes-based parties, the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal won 17 and the Federal Socialist Forum, Nepal 16.

The left alliance's majority allowed K. P. Sharma Oli of the CPN (UML) to become prime minister on 15 February 2018 at the head of a stable two-thirds coalition. For students searching 'nepal election 2017 seats by party', the headline is that the communist alliance combined FPTP dominance with PR seats to secure the strongest government of the federal era, even though the Nepali Congress remained the single largest party by first-past-the-post vote share.

The 2022 general election, held in a single phase on 20 November 2022 (Mangsir 2079 BS), again filled the 275-seat House (165 FPTP + 110 PR). Turnout was about 61.85% on the constituency ballot and 61.41% on the PR ballot. The Nepali Congress, contesting within a broad democratic alliance, emerged as the largest party with 89 seats (57 FPTP + 32 PR). The CPN (UML) came second with 78 seats (44 FPTP + 34 PR), and the CPN (Maoist Centre) took 32.

The most notable story of 2022 was the arrival of new parties. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), founded only months earlier by former TV presenter Rabi Lamichhane, won 20 seats (7 FPTP + 13 PR) and 10.70% of the PR vote in its debut. The royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party won 14 seats, the People's Socialist Party (JSP) 12, and the Madhes-based Janamat Party six. By PR vote share, the UML led on 26.95%, just ahead of the Nepali Congress on 25.71%.

Government formation proved turbulent. After the Nepali Congress-led alliance failed to agree on the premiership, Maoist chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' struck a deal with the UML, RSP and others and became prime minister on 26 December 2022. That coalition soon reshuffled, underscoring the fragmented, coalition-driven arithmetic that has characterised Nepal's House since federalism began. This election is the top result for the query 'nepal election result 2022'.

Nepal's most recent poll was the early general election of 5 March 2026 (Falgun 2082 BS). It followed the September 2025 Gen Z protests, sparked by a short-lived social-media ban, in which security forces killed at least 76 people. Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli resigned on 9 September 2025, the House was dissolved on 12 September, and former chief justice Sushila Karki was appointed interim prime minister to hold elections within six months.

The result was a landslide for the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which won 182 of 275 seats (162 FPTP + 20 PR) on a commanding 47.84% PR vote share - the first single-party majority since 1999. The established parties collapsed in constituency contests: the Nepali Congress won 38 seats (all from PR, 16.24% vote), the CPN (UML) 25 seats (all PR, 13.44%), and a Nepali Communist Party grouping 17 seats. RSP figure Balendra 'Balen' Shah, the rapper turned Kathmandu mayor, formed a majority government without needing coalition partners.

Turnout was around 59% (59.08% FPTP, 59.67% PR), with roughly 800,000 first-time voters registered, many from the Gen Z demographic that had driven the protests. As the newest entry in this directory, the 2026 election represents the sharpest generational realignment in Nepal's electoral history, sweeping aside the Congress-UML-Maoist duopoly that had dominated since 1991. Because results were still being finalised through early 2026, some figures here are provisional and should be checked against the Election Commission's official tallies.