Who Campaigned, Who Showed Up, Who Won: Women in Nepal's 2026 General Elections
- CGAP South Asia
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Nepal’s 2026 general election is widely seen as a turning point for the country’s democracy. With more than 800,000 newly registered voters, the majority of whom belonged to Gen Z, these elections were held following massive, youth-led protests in September 2025 that forced the resignation of the Prime Minister and the dissolution of parliament. This makes it Nepal’s most youth-driven election in history.
We reviewed women contestants and elected representatives to understand what this means for gender equality in Nepalese politics. What we found was that fewer women were directly elected compared to the last elections, despite a large population of women participating in youth movements across the country. This poses a critical question relevant to all South Asian (SA) democracies: why does women’s participation in politics not translate into political leadership?
Who Campaigned
Let us quickly look at Nepal's House of Representatives (HoR).
The HoR has 275 seats. The First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system accounts for 165 seats, where the candidate who secures the most votes wins; here, citizens vote for an individual. On the contrary, the proportional representation (PR) system accounts for 110 seats, which are split by party vote share; here, citizens vote for a political party. In this election, women won 96 of the 275 HoR seats (34.9%), surpassing the constitutionally mandated 33% threshold.
In the FPTP system, women made up only 388 out of 3,406 candidates, resulting in a striking number of constituencies with zero women candidates. Out of the women who ran, 40% (155 candidates) ran as independents, compared to 33% of male candidates.
In the proportional representation system, the number of women nominated was much higher than in the FPTP system, with women making up more than 50% of the PR list. Consequently, we observed that women made it to the legislature via the PR list far more frequently than through direct seats.
While contesting elections via direct seats poses steep challenges for women, the PR list ensured women's representation in parliament through a system of nominations. The historical absence of women from the direct ballot in Nepal is not a reflection of their absence from political life.
Who Showed Up
Nepal has over 19 million eligible voters, and roughly half of them are women. Detailed, gender-disaggregated turnout data for this election is still being compiled, but it is more important than ever before to account for the women who voted and the agendas they supported.
It is also worth noting that this election was conducted entirely for the Federal House of Representatives; the provincial assembly elections have been deferred for now. Observers note that in local governance, women’s political representation remains strong in Nepal, partly due to mandatory local quotas which were not on the ballot this time. This deferral narrows the space in which women's political participation could have been measured and advanced.
Women Who Won
In 2022, nine women won direct FPTP seats. In 2026, 14 women won direct seats, marking the biggest jump in direct mandates Nepal has ever seen. Traditional major parties (like the CPN-UML and Nepali Congress) continue to under-nominate women for direct FPTP seats, often reserving tickets for well-funded male candidates. Strikingly, 13 of the 14 women who won direct seats in 2026 belonged to the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP).
This election also saw some historic wins. Indira Rana Magar (Jhapa-2) won by 48,772 votes, one of the largest winning margins in Nepal's electoral history while Rubina Acharya (Morang-6) won by over 42,000 votes.
Furthermore, the election produced significant firsts. Bhumika Shrestha became Nepal's first transgender woman Member of Parliament. Sita Badi, from the historically marginalised Badi community, was elected via the PR list and subsequently appointed Minister of Women, Children and Senior Citizens.
Women now hold 33% of the cabinet, the highest executive representation in Nepal’s history: Sobita Gautam (Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs), Pratibha Rawal (Federal Affairs & General Administration), Sita Badi (Women, Children & Senior Citizens), Geeta Chaudhary (Agriculture & Livestock Development), and Nisha Mehta (Health & Population).
The Road Ahead
Nepal's 2026 elections mark genuine progress. More women won direct seats than ever before, two historic firsts were achieved, and the cabinet features unprecedented female representation. However, the structural landscape requires a more careful reading.
Nepal's constitution promises 33% women's representation. While the country is meeting that metric, the path to that number still runs primarily through a system of allocated seats rather than direct mandates. This is not unique to Nepal; it is a pattern that persists across other South Asian democracies.
Women’s active participation in voter turnout, grassroots political movements, and civic life does not automatically translate into political leadership. The distance between raw participation and actual representation remains one of the most critical and unresolved concerns in the region.
Why does women’s participation in politics fail to translate into political leadership? Nepal’s 2026 elections may not answer this question, but they have certainly made it impossible to ignore.
At CGAP, we will keep watching, documenting, and asking the questions that matter.
About the Author:
Riya Hira is a social impact strategist with a background in learning design, gender justice, and communications. She builds ecosystems, systems, programmes and communications strategies across themes of gender justice, civic participation and learning & systems change. She co-founded Project Statecraft, a youth-led policy and civic education initiative, and has led programmes backed by the UNDP and the Citi Foundation focusing on responsible civic participation, SDG education and 21st-century skills across India. She also brings experience in private sector strategy and communications, currently consulting for a healthcare publishing organisation on brand positioning and digital growth.
The article does not necessarily express the views of the Centre for Gender & Politics but those of the author.
This blog draws on data from the Election Commission of Nepal, the International IDEA, and CGAP's ongoing tracking of women's political participation across South Asia. It is the written companion to CGAP's Nepal Elections Explainer series, a social media series tracking what elections mean for women in South Asian politics.
CGAP, Centre for Gender and Politics, is a think tank that works at the intersection of women, politics, & South Asia to produce high-quality research & push for narratives of women as leaders, and not as victims. Our work includes Beyond Victims, Worth Asking, and the Parliamentary Readiness Review.
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