Political Parties of Nepal: Directory, Profiles and Election Symbols

Nepal is a federal democratic republic with a vigorous multi-party system. Parties must register with the Election Commission of Nepal, which also allots each party a fixed pictorial election symbol so that voters, including those who cannot read, can identify their party on the ballot. The same symbol is reserved for a party across local, provincial and federal elections.

The federal Parliament has two chambers: the 275-member House of Representatives (the lower house) and the 59-member National Assembly (the upper house). Members of the House of Representatives are elected through a mixed system: 165 seats by first-past-the-post (FPTP) in single-member constituencies and 110 seats by closed-list proportional representation (PR). This mixed system, combined with frequent splits and mergers, produces a crowded field in which coalition governments are the norm rather than the exception.

Not every registered party enjoys full national recognition. Under the Political Parties Act, 2017 and the related election laws, a party must clear two tests to be recognised as a national party: it must win at least one seat under the first-past-the-post system, and it must secure at least 3 percent of the total valid votes cast under the proportional representation system.

The 3 percent PR threshold also functions as a cut-off for sharing in the proportional seats. Votes cast for parties that fall below the threshold are not counted when proportional seats are allocated, which concentrates representation among the larger forces. Lawmakers elected from parties that fail the national-party test may sit in Parliament, but their parties lose the privileges of national recognition.

National party status matters because it affects ballot ordering, access to state support and the reservation of a party's election symbol. The roll order of symbols on the ballot has been based on the share of proportional votes parties won at the previous general election, with newer parties placed after the established ones.

A handful of large parties have dominated Nepali politics since the restoration of multi-party democracy in 1990 and the establishment of the republic in 2008. The two oldest pillars are the centrist Nepali Congress and the communist CPN-UML, joined since 2008 by the former rebel CPN (Maoist Centre).

Newer national forces have reshaped the landscape. The Rastriya Swatantra Party, founded only in 2022, surged into Parliament as an anti-establishment 'alternative' force, while the Rastriya Prajatantra Party carries the banner of constitutional monarchy and a Hindu state. The profiles below summarise each party's founding, ideology and election symbol.

Alongside the big national forces, several regionally rooted and breakaway parties hold seats. Many emerged from the Madhes movement for greater representation of the southern plains, or from splits within the larger communist parties. Their fortunes often hinge on identity politics, federalism and provincial coalitions.

These parties illustrate the fluidity of Nepali politics: alliances form and dissolve, and parties frequently merge or split, sometimes reuniting again. Election symbols are an important asset in these realignments because a recognised symbol carries name recognition with voters.

Because Nepal uses pictorial election symbols, the ballot effectively functions as a grid of pictures, one per party (and a separate symbol for each independent candidate). Voters mark a swastika-style stamp beside the symbol of their choice. The symbols are durable identifiers — a party keeps the same symbol across successive elections, which is why 'the tree', 'the sun' or 'the bell' become shorthand for the parties themselves in everyday political conversation.

The major reserved symbols are easy to recognise: Tree (Nepali Congress), Sun (CPN-UML), Hammer and sickle in a circle (CPN Maoist Centre), Bell (Rastriya Swatantra Party), Plough (Rastriya Prajatantra Party), Umbrella (Janata Samajbadi Party), Pen (CPN Unified Socialist), Bicycle (Loktantrik Samajbadi Party) and Microphone (Janamat Party).

The November 2022 federal election produced the most recent fully documented distribution of the 275 House seats, and it captures the relative strength of the parties in durable terms. The Nepali Congress emerged as the largest party, followed by the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre); the new Rastriya Swatantra Party's strong debut and the persistence of several smaller parties underscored the fragmented nature of Nepali politics.

The figures below combine first-past-the-post and proportional seats. They reflect the result certified after the 2022 polls and remain a stable reference point for each party's parliamentary weight (subsequent by-elections, defections and mergers can change day-to-day numbers).