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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000740 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KWMN NP
SUBJECT: WOMEN MAKE IMPORTANT STRIDES IN NEPAL'S CA ELECTION 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (U) Nepali women made important strides in April's 
Constituent Assembly (CA) election, capturing 33 percent of 
the seats in the 601-member Assembly.  Much of the increase 
in female representation can be attributed to the quota which 
required parties to fill half of the seats they won through 
proportional representation (PR) with female candidates. 
However, the number of women elected in first-past-the-post 
(FPTP) races also rose significantly, from 7.2 percent in 
1999 to 12 percent in 2008.  The large majority of women 
elected in FPTP contests were from the Communist Party of 
Nepal (Maoist).  FPTP races also largely favored Brahmin and 
Chettri women over women from traditionally marginalized 
groups.  Yet women from a wide range of parties, castes and 
ethnic groups were able to gain representation through the 
new PR-based quota system. 
 
Nepal's Female Representation Rises Dramatically 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶2.  (U) Female candidates won just over 33 percent of the 
elected seats in Nepal's recent CA election, marking a major 
victory for women in Nepal.  (Note: This percentage is 
calculated based on the combined 575 elected seats, since the 
cabinet has yet to agree on the 26 appointed seats.  The 
number will have to be adjusted if women win any of the five 
by-elections which are currently scheduled.  End Note.)  The 
percentage of women in Nepal's legislative body is 
substantially higher than the global average of 17.8 percent, 
and is twice that of the current percentage of women in the 
United State Congress, which comes in at 16.5 percent.  Nepal 
now ranks fourteenth in the percentage of female 
representatives in nationally elected assemblies, according 
to a UN report. 
 
Comparing FPTP and PR Elections 
------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (U) The new 601-member CA is comprised of FPTP seats, PR 
seats and individual seats appointed by the cabinet.  FPTP 
races are direct elections where citizens vote for individual 
candidates.  In these contests, women were elected to 30 out 
of a total of 240 seats, or 12.5 percent.  The success of 
women in prominent races was mixed.  In Rolpa 2, former 
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation 
Bhim Kumari Budha of the Nepali Congress (NC) lost to Maoist 
chairman Pushpa Dahal (aka Prachanda) and in Sunsari 5, 
Minister without Portfolio (and Prime Minister Koirala's 
daughter) Sujata Koirala of NC lost to Madhesi People's 
Rights Forum (MPRF) chief Upendra Yadav.  In Siraha 2, the 
outgoing Deputy Speaker of the Interim Parliament, 
Chitralekha Yadav of the NC, lost to MPRF's Raj Lal Yadav. 
However, the two sitting Maoist cabinet members, Minister for 
Physical Planning Hisila Yami and Minister for Women, 
Children and Social Welfare Pampha Bhusal, were victorious in 
Kathmandu 7 and Lalitpur 3, respectively. 
 
¶4.  (U) Unlike the FPTP elections, the PR election involved 
votes cast for parties rather than individual candidates. 
Parties were then allowed to choose candidates from a 
pre-selected list to fill the seats they had won.  Their 
candidate lists and their final choices were required to 
adhere to quotas that ensured representation of women as well 
as a number of other historically underrepresented groups. 
This quota system required that 50 percent of a party's seats 
went to women candidates.  Out of 335 PR seats, women 
captured 161.  (Note: Many parties that had only one seat 
tended to give it to a male candidate, and those with an odd 
number of seats also favored men.  The percentage of women 
holding PR seats is therefore less than 50 percent of the 
total number of seats. End note.) 
 
Maoists Dominate Female Representation 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (U) By far the party with the greatest number of 
successful female candidates - and of female candidates 
overall - in FPTP contests was the Communist Party of Nepal 
(Maoist), which was the party of 24 of the 30 women elected. 
Among other parties, 2 NC women and 2 MPRF women won; 1 woman 
 
KATHMANDU 00000740  002 OF 002 
 
 
from the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) 
and 1 from the Tarai Madhes Democratic Party also captured 
seats.  Most of the successful Maoist women candidates ran in 
rural constituencies. 
 
Substantial Increase Compared to Previous Nepali Parliaments 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) The April 10 election brought a substantial increase 
in the number of women elected.  In the last general election 
in 1999, only 12 women were elected to the 205-member House 
of Representatives, as opposed to 30 women elected to the 240 
FPTP seats this year.  (Note: This year was the first time 
the PR election system was used.)  The percentage of those 
running who were female also increased, from 6.3 percent in 
1999 to 9.2 percent in 2008.  There is also a larger number 
of women in the CA compared to the Interim Parliament, in 
which women held 51 out of a 328 seats, or roughly one-sixth 
of the total.  Twenty-five of the 51 women in the Interim 
Parliament were Maoists. 
 
Who Are the Women MPs? 
---------------------- 
 
¶7.  (U) The women members of the CA, like their male 
counterparts, represent a wide range of castes and ethnic 
groups.  Of the 30 women elected in FPTP races, there are 11 
Brahmin women, 7 Janajati, 6 Chettri, 4 Madhesi, 2 Dalit and 
1 Muslim.  (Note: One of the candidates is both Madhesi and 
Muslim. End note.)  The distribution is much more equitable 
in the PR results.  Among the 161 women elected in the PR 
contest, 30 are Brahmin, 14 Chettri, 57 Janajati, 33 Madhesi, 
23 Dalit and 4 Muslim. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶8.  (U) The results of the Constituent Assembly election 
reflect not only a sea change in women's public roles in 
Nepali society, but also a deep resistance to this change. 
Many parties appeared more concerned with meeting the quota 
than with actually having female representation. A 
significant number employed a strategy of placing men rather 
than women in seats when there was a choice.  Still, the fact 
that women occupy such a large number of seats is 
significant.  The number more than doubled in the past nine 
years, with just 15.5 percent of total seats occupied by 
women in 1999, as opposed to 33 percent today.  Clearly, the 
symbolism of this increase alone can be tremendously 
powerful.  However, the future of the PR system is uncertain 
in Nepal. Many Nepali politicians who were in favor of the PR 
system for this election may not be in favor for the next 
general election, expected in two years.  The battle to 
ensure adequate representation for women is far from over. 
POWELL