1959 Nepalese general election

General elections were held in Nepal from 18 February to 3 April 1959 to elect the 109 members of the first House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Nepal.^[1][5] They were held under the provisions of the 1959 constitution, which had been adopted on 12 February.^[6] More than 4.25 million people out of an overall population of about 8.55 million (1954) were eligible to vote.^[7] Voter turnout was 42.18%.^[8][2]

1959 Nepalese general election

18 February–3 April 1959[1] 1971 →
All 109 seats in the House of Representatives 55 seats needed for a majority
Registered	4,246,368[2]
Turnout	1,791,381
First party Second party   Leader B. P. Koirala Randhir Subba [ne] Party Congress Gorkha Parishad Leader's seat No. 32 (Won)[3] No. 26 (Lost)[4] Seats won 74 19 Popular vote 666,898 305,118 Percentage 37.2% 17.1%
Prime Minister before election Subarna Shamsher Rana Congress Prime Minister after election B. P. Koirala Congress

The result was a victory for the Nepali Congress, winning 74 of the 109 seats with 38% of the vote.^[9] B. P. Koirala became the first democratically elected and 22nd Prime Minister of Nepal.^[10]

Campaign

786 candidates competed for 109 seats in the House of Representatives; 268 ran as independents, with the others representing nine parties. The Nepali Congress contested 108 constituencies, the Gorkha Parishad contested in 86 seats and the Communist Party of Nepal contested 47 seat.

The CIA covertly assisted Koirala and the Nepali Congress in winning the election.^[11]

Results

Only four parties secured the designation of 'National party' in accordance with the Election Act of Nepal 1959. The party presidents of eight of the nine parties failed to win a seat, with Nepali Congress Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala the only party president to be elected, winning in constituency No. 32 (Morang South Biratnagar West).^[4] Nepali Congress leader Subarna Shamsher Rana contested three constituencies (No. 52 (Bara Parsa, Central North), constituency No. 53 (Bara, East Parsa) and constituency No. 91 (Gulmi, South-West)) and won them all. Another Nepal Congress leader Surya Prasad Upadhyaya contested two constituencies (constituency No. 5 (Kathmandu Valley) and constituency No. 14 (Ramechhap, South)) but was defeated in both.

Gorkha Parishad president Randhir Subba was defeated in constituency No. 26 Dhankuta. Tarai Congress president Vedananda Jha lost in constituency No. 39 Siraha. Communist Party of Nepal General Secretary Keshar Jung Rayamajhi was defeated in Palpa Constituency No. 93. Democratic General Assembly president Ranganath Sharma was also defeated in Kathmandu Constituency No. 5. Dilli Raman Regmi of the Nepali National Congress and Bhadrakali Mishra of Nepal Praja Parishad (Mishra) were also defeated. Tanka Prasad Acharya was defeated in from Kathmandu Constituency No. 5.^[4][12]

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Nepali Congress	666,898	37.23	74
	Nepal Rashtrabadi Gorkha Parishad	305,118	17.03	19
	Samyukta Prajatantra Party	177,408	9.90	5
	Communist Party of Nepal	129,142	7.21	4
	Prajatantrik Mahasabha	59,896	3.34	0
	Nepal Praja Parishad (Mishra)	59,820	3.34	1
	Nepal Praja Parishad (Acharya)	53,038	2.96	2
	Tarai Congress	36,107	2.02	0
	Nepali National Congress	12,707	0.71	0
	Independents	291,247	16.26	4
Total		1,791,381	100.00	109
Registered voters/turnout		4,246,468	–
Source: Nohlen et al

Aftermath

The speaker of the first House of Representatives was Krishna Prasad Bhattarai from Nepali Congress.^[13] The term of the parliament started from 27 May 1959 and it was dissolved on 15 December 1960.

See also

• List of MPs elected in the 1959 Nepalese general election