Provincial Assemblies of Nepal: Seats, Composition & 2022 Results

Nepal is a federal democratic republic with three tiers of government: federal, provincial and local. The seven provinces each have a single-chamber (unicameral) Provincial Assembly (Pradesh Sabha), which is the province's law-making body. The assemblies were created under the Constitution of Nepal 2015 (2072 Bikram Sambat), whose Part 14 and Articles 175 to 178 govern provincial legislatures, their composition, term and members' qualifications.

Under Article 176, members are elected through a mixed (parallel) system: 60 percent of each assembly's seats are filled by first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting in single-member territorial constituencies, and the remaining 40 percent are allocated by closed-list proportional representation (PR) from a province-wide constituency. The Constitution requires that at least one-third of each party's total elected members be women, achieved mainly through the PR lists. The term of a Provincial Assembly is five years (Article 177) unless it is dissolved earlier.

The number of seats each province receives is fixed by the Election Commission of Nepal on the basis of population and geography, using the same delimitation exercise that sets federal constituencies. Across all seven provinces there are 550 provincial-assembly members: 330 elected by FPTP and 220 by PR. Each assembly elects a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker from among its members (Article 182), and one of the two positions is reserved for a woman.

The current (second) assemblies were elected in the general and provincial elections held on 20 November 2022 (4 Mangsir 2079 BS), and their first sessions convened from January 2023. Figures below are the results certified for that election and are historical and fixed.

The table below summarises every province: total assembly seats, the FPTP and PR split, and the number of federal House of Representatives (HoR) constituencies located inside that province. The provincial FPTP total (330) is exactly twice the 165 federal HoR constituencies, because each federal constituency is divided into two provincial-assembly constituencies (commonly labelled 'A' and 'B').

Bagmati Province has the most seats (110) and Karnali the fewest (40), reflecting their populations. Together the seven assemblies seat 550 members. Note that Koshi Province was known as Province No. 1 and Sudurpashchim as the Far-Western Province before the provinces were formally named.

Koshi Province (formerly Province No. 1), with its assembly in Biratnagar, has 93 seats: 56 elected by FPTP and 37 by PR, drawn from the province's 28 federal House of Representatives constituencies. In the 2022 election the CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninist), or CPN (UML), emerged as the largest party with 40 seats, followed by the Nepali Congress with 29 and the CPN (Maoist Centre) with 13. The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) won 6, the CPN (Unified Socialist) 4 and the People's Socialist Party (PSP-Nepal) 1. Baburam Gautam of the CPN (Maoist Centre) served as the first Speaker of the second assembly.

Madhesh Province, seated in Janakpur, is the second-largest assembly with 107 seats: 64 by FPTP (from 32 federal HoR constituencies) and 43 by PR. The 2022 result was the most fragmented of any province, with the mainstream national parties and Madhes-based parties both winning substantial blocs. The CPN (UML) and Nepali Congress led with roughly 23 and 22 seats respectively, followed by the People's Socialist Party, Nepal (PSP-N) with about 20 and the Janamat Party with about 12; the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP), CPN (Maoist Centre), CPN (Unified Socialist) and smaller Madhesi and RPP entries filled the remainder. Ram Ashish Yadav of the PSP-Nepal was elected Speaker, with Babita Devi Raut Ishar of the Janamat Party as Deputy Speaker.

Bagmati Province is the largest provincial assembly in Nepal, with 110 seats: 66 by FPTP and 44 by PR, apportioned across the province's 33 federal House of Representatives constituencies. Its assembly sits in Hetauda, and the province contains the federal capital, Kathmandu. In the 2022 election the Nepali Congress won the most seats (36), followed by the CPN (Maoist Centre) (26) and the CPN (UML) (25); the Rastriya Prajatantra Party took 12, the Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party 3 and the Hamro Nepali Party 2. Bhuwan Kumar Pathak of the RPP was elected Speaker and Apsara Chapagai Khatri of the CPN (UML) Deputy Speaker.

Gandaki Province, with its assembly in Pokhara, has 60 seats — the constitutional minimum — comprising 36 FPTP and 24 PR seats drawn from 18 federal HoR constituencies. The 2022 result favoured the Nepali Congress, which won 27 seats, ahead of the CPN (UML) with 22 and the CPN (Maoist Centre) with 8; the RPP took 2 and one independent was elected. Krishna Prasad Dhital of the CPN (Maoist Centre) was elected Speaker, with Bina Kumari Thapa of the CPN (UML) as Deputy Speaker. Because it has only 60 seats, Gandaki is the joint-smallest assembly in area terms yet is among the more politically stable provinces.

Lumbini Province, seated in Deukhuri (Dang), has 87 seats: 52 by FPTP and 35 by PR, from 26 federal House of Representatives constituencies. In 2022 the CPN (UML) won the most seats (about 29), narrowly ahead of the Nepali Congress (about 27) and the CPN (Maoist Centre) (about 13); the RPP, Janamat Party, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, PSP and Rastriya Janamorcha shared the remainder along with one independent. Tularam Gharti Magar of the CPN (Maoist Centre) was elected Speaker, with Menuka Khand K.C. of the RPP as Deputy Speaker.

Karnali Province, with its assembly in Birendranagar (Surkhet), is Nepal's smallest provincial assembly with 40 seats: 24 by FPTP and 16 by PR, from 12 federal HoR constituencies. The 2022 election produced a close three-way result: the Nepali Congress won 15 seats, the CPN (Maoist Centre) 14 and the CPN (UML) 10, with the RPP taking 1. Nanda Gurung of the CPN (UML) was elected Speaker and Yashoda Neupane of the CPN (Maoist Centre) Deputy Speaker.

Sudurpashchim Province (the Far-Western Province), seated in Godawari (Kailali), has 53 seats: 32 by FPTP and 21 by PR, from 16 federal HoR constituencies. The CPN (Maoist Centre) won the most seats there in 2022 (about 22), ahead of the Nepali Congress (about 18) and the CPN (UML) (about 11), with the RPP taking 1. Bhim Bahadur Bhandari of the CPN (Maoist Centre) was elected Speaker, with Koili Devi Chaudhary of the CPN (UML) as Deputy Speaker.

Nepal's federal House of Representatives has 275 members: 165 elected by FPTP from single-member constituencies and 110 by nationwide proportional representation. Those 165 FPTP constituencies are the building blocks for the provincial assemblies. Under the delimitation rules, each federal constituency is subdivided into exactly two provincial-assembly constituencies. That is why the provincial FPTP total is 330 — precisely double the 165 federal seats — and why a province's provincial FPTP seat count is always twice its number of federal constituencies (for example, Koshi's 28 federal constituencies yield 56 provincial FPTP seats).

So when someone asks 'how many constituencies are in Koshi Province', the answer depends on the level: 28 federal House of Representatives constituencies, or 56 provincial-assembly FPTP constituencies (plus one province-wide PR constituency). The same logic applies to every province. Adding the seven province-wide PR constituencies, Nepal has 337 provincial electoral units in total (330 FPTP plus 7 PR).

The proportional-representation seats are filled from closed party lists submitted before the election, with seats distributed in proportion to each party's share of the province-wide PR vote (subject to a threshold). This PR component is what allows smaller and identity-based parties, and the mandated women and inclusion quotas, to gain representation even where they win few or no FPTP seats.

The seat totals, FPTP/PR splits and constituency counts in this article are constitutionally and administratively fixed and do not change between elections. The party-wise composition, however, reflects the position immediately after the 20 November 2022 election as certified by the Election Commission of Nepal and cross-checked against Wikipedia. Because Nepal's politics is coalition-based, chief ministers, ruling coalitions and even some Speakers have changed during the assemblies' term, and a small number of seats have at times been vacant due to deaths, resignations or by-elections.

For a few provinces (notably Madhesh and Lumbini), independent tallies of the by-method FPTP-versus-PR split for individual parties differ slightly, so this article reports each party's overall seat total, which is the durable figure, rather than an unverified method-by-method breakdown. Readers needing the exact current standing of any assembly should consult the Election Commission of Nepal or the relevant Provincial Assembly Secretariat, whose records are the definitive source.