The politics of Nepal functions within the framework of a parliamentary republic with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and their cabinet, while legislative power is vested in the Parliament. The country has a ceremonial president, who is indirectly elected by an electoral college comprising the Federal Parliament of Nepal and the provincial assemblies of each of Nepal's seven provinces, who themselves are all directly elected. The president is the head of state and commander-in-chief. The country also has a vice president. Between 1768 and 2008, the country was called the Kingdom of Nepal.
Modern Nepal was unified in 1768 by Prithvi Narayan Shah, who then established the Shah dynasty. The Kot massacre in 1846 led to over a century of Rana dynasty rule and largely relegated the Shah dynasty to a figurehead. After the 1951 Nepalese revolution, democracy was briefly introduced, but the Mahendra of Nepal replaced it with a party-less Panchayat system. After the 1990 Nepalese revolution, the country became a constitutional monarchy. Finally, after years of civil war and the 2001 royal massacre, the monarchy was abolished in 2008 under the Gyanendra of Nepal following the 2006 Nepalese revolution, with the country becoming a federal democratic republic. A new constitution was adopted in 2015. In 2017, Nepal held its first general election since the end of the civil war, in which the Nepal Communist Party (a short-lived merger of the UML and Maoist-Centre) won a majority at the federal level as well as in six of the seven provinces. Since the 1990s, politics in Nepal were dominated by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, and the Nepali Congress. The majority of Nepal's political parties espouse democratic socialism, while some are officially centrist and a few are centre-right. After the 2025 Nepalese Gen Z protests, Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli resigned, leading to demands for an interim government. Following consultations, Sushila Karki was selected as the interim Prime Minister, becoming the first woman in Nepal’s history to hold the position. At her request, President Ram Chandra Paudel dissolved the Parliament of Nepal, leading to the 2026 general election, which was won by the Rastriya Swatantra Party of former Kathmandu mayor Balen Shah.
while the 2018 Polity data series considers it to be a democracy. According to the 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices Nepal was the 7th most electorally democratic country in Asia.
History
Dynasticism
The four noble families to be involved in the active politics of the Kingdom of Nepal before the rise of the Rana dynasty were the Shah dynasty, the Basnyat family, the Pande dynasty and the Thapa dynasty. At the end of 18th century, the Thapas and the Pandes had extreme dominance over Nepalese Darbar politics, alternatively contesting for central power with one another. Early politics in the Kingdom of Nepal was characterised by factionalism, conspiracies and murders, including two major massacres. After almost a century of power-wrangling among the Basnyat, Pande and Thapa families, the military leader Bir Narsingh Kunwar emerged on top in the aftermath of the Kot massacre, and established the Rana dynasty in 1846, which consolidated powers of the king and prime minister and would reign for another century with a policy of oppression and isolationism.
20th century
By the 1930s, Nepali expatriates in India had started smuggling in writings on political philosophies, which gave birth to a vibrant underground political movement in the capital, birthing Nepal Praja Parishad in 1939, which was dissolved only two years later, following the execution of the four great martyrs. Around the same time, Nepalis involved in the Indian Independence Movement began organising into political parties, leading to the birth of the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal. Following Indian independence, Nepali Congress was successful in overthrowing the Rana regime with support from the Indian government and cooperation from the king. While communism was still trying to find its footing, Nepali Congress enjoyed overwhelming support of the electorate. Following a brief ten-year exercise in democracy, the autocratic Panchayat system was initiated, this time by the King, who deposed the democratically elected government of Nepali Congress, imprisoned or exiled prominent leaders and issued a ban on party politics.
Many political parties and their leaders remained underground or in exile for the next 30 years of "partyless" politics in Nepal. BP Koirala was released from prison in 1968 and went into exile in Benaras, returning in 1976 only to immediately be put in house arrest. Although an armed insurgency launched by the major communist faction called the Jhapa movement had failed comprehensively by 1971, it formed the foundation for the dominant communist power, CPN (ML), that was officially launched in 1978. A general referendum was held in 1980, which saw the CPN ML campaign for the option of multi-party democracy, along with Nepali Congress, but the Panchayat System was declared the winner to significant controversy. The Panchayat rule saw governments led by a group of monarchy loyalists taking turns, with Surya Bahadur Thapa, Tulsi Giri and Kirti Nidhi Bista becoming prime minister three times each, among others. It introduced a number of reforms, built infrastructures and modernised the country, while significantly curtailing political freedom, imposing the Nepali language and Khas culture to the oppression of all others, and spreading Indophobic propaganda, the effects of which are experienced to the present day.
In 1990, the joint civil resistance launched by the United Left front and Nepali Congress was successful in overthrowing the Panchayat, and the country became a constitutional monarchy.Rawal, Bhim Bahadur. Nepalma samyabadi andolan: udbhab ra vikas. Kathmandu: Pairavi Prakashan. p. 83-84. The United Left Front became CPN UML. The Panchayat loyalists formed National Democratic Party, which emerged as the third major party. While Nepali Congress ran the government for most of the next ten years of democracy that followed, democracy was mostly a disappointment owing to the immature democratic culture and political infighting in the capital, as well as the civil war that followed the guerrilla insurgency launched by the Maoist Party.
21st century
Following a four-year autocratic rule by King Gyanendra that failed to defeat the Maoists, a mass civil protest was launched by a coalition of the Maoists and the political parties in 2006, which forced the king to step down, brought the Maoists to the peace process, and established a democratic republic by 2008.
Following the political consensus to draft the new constitution of the Republic via a constituent assembly, Nepali politics saw a rise in nationalist groups and ideologies. While the political power-wrangling caused continuous instability, maintaining the established average of nine months per government, this period saw two constituent assembly elections and the rise of Madhesi nationalist parties, especially in the Eastern Terai region. By 2015, the new constitution had been promulgated and Nepal became "a federal democratic republic striving towards democratic socialism". In 2017, a series of elections were held according to the new constitution, which established Nepal Communist Party (NCP) (formally united after the election) as the ruling party at the federal level as well as six of the seven provinces, Nepali Congress as the only significant opposition in federal and provincial levels, while the Madhesi coalition formed the provincial government in Province No. 2, but boasts negligible presence in the rest of the country. After the adoption of the new constitution, Nepalese politics were dominated by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, KP Sharma Oli, and Sher Bahadur Deuba, who all dominated House of Representatives elections between 2017 and 2026. In municipal politics, rapper Balen Shah became the first independent candidate to be elected mayor of Kathmandu in 2022.
In September 2025, a ban on numerous social media platforms was met by widespread protests that also came to be directed against corruption by ruling politicians. On the 9th of September, Oli resigned as the prime minister. Former chief justice Sushila Karki was sworn in as interim prime minister on 12 September, the first woman in the role. Nepal's 2026 general election was a major realignment, with Shah's Rastriya Swatantra Party surging and forming a majority government, a first in 1991. On 27 March 2026, Balendra Shah was sworn in as Nepal's prime minister.
Political parties
Federal Parliament The Parliament of Nepal (Sansad) has two chambers: the House of Representatives (Pratinidhi Sabha) has 275 members elected for five-year term in single-seat constituencies. The National Assembly (Rashtriya Sabha) has 59 members, 8 from each state and the remaining 3 from the private concern of the government.
House of Representatives Recent election results (2026): The Rastriya Swatantra Party won landslide victory with 182 seats under the Prime Ministerial candidate of Balendra Shah. The election was held after the September's country wide gen-z protest.
National Assembly Current composition as of 2026: CategoryNamePartyAssumed officeClassPortfolio & ResponsibilitiesKoshi ProvinceOpenSunil Bahadur Thapa9 March 20261OpenGopal Basnet4 March 20222OpenKrishna Prasad Sitaula4 March 20243 Parliamentary party leader of Nepali CongressWomenRoshni Meche9 March 20261WomenJayanti Rai4 March 20222WomenRukmini Koirala4 March 20243DalitSomannath Portel9 March 20261With Disabilityor Ethnic MinoritySonam Gyaljen Sherpa4 March 20222Madhesh ProvinceOpenMahantha Thakur9 March 20261OpenMohammad Khalid4 March 20222OpenAnanda Prasad Dhungana4 March 20243WomenRekha Kumari Jha9 March 20261WomenUrmila Aryal4 March 20222WomenPooja Chaudhary4 March 20243DalitDharmendra Paswan9 March 20261With Disabilityor Ethnic MinorityRanjit Karna9 March 20261Bagmati ProvinceOpenPrem Prasad Dangal9 March 20261OpenKrishna Prasad Paudel4 March 20222OpenJit Jung Basnet4 March 20243WomenGita Devkota9 March 20261WomenGoma Devi Timilsina4 March 20222WomenBishnu Devi Pudasaini4 March 20243DalitGhanashyam Rijal4 March 20243With Disabilityor Ethnic MinorityShrikrishna Adhikari4 March 20243Gandaki ProvinceOpenJagat Timilsina9 March 20261OpenSuresh Ale Magar4 March 20222OpenKiran Babu Shrestha4 March 20243WomenSamjhana Devkota9 March 20261WomenKamala Panta4 March 20222WomenManrupa Sharma4 March 20243DalitBhuwan Sunar4 March 20222With Disabilityor Ethnic MinorityPadma Bahadur Pariyar4 March 20243Lumbini ProvinceOpenChandra Bahadur K.C.9 March 20261OpenYubaraj Sharma4 March 20222OpenJhakku Prasad Subedi4 March 20243WomenRam Kumari Jhakri9 March 20261WomenRajya Laxmi Gaire4 March 20222WomenVishnu Kumari Sapkota4 March 20243DalitTul Prasad Bishwakarma4 March 20222With Disabilityor Ethnic MinorityBasudev Ghimire9 March 20261Karnali ProvinceOpenLalit Jung Shahi9 March 20261OpenUdaya Bohara4 March 20222OpenKrishna Bahadur Rokaya4 March 20243WomenSumitra BC9 March 20261WomenMeena Singh Rakhal4 March 20222WomenSavitri Malla4 March 20243DalitBishnu BK4 March 20243With Disabilityor Ethnic MinorityNara Bahadur Bista4 March 20222Sudurpashchim ProvinceOpenKhamma Bahadur Khati9 March 20261OpenNarayan Dutta Mishra4 March 20222Open3WomenLila Kumari Bhandari9 March 20261WomenMadan Kumari Shah4 March 20222WomenRenu Chand4 March 20243DalitJagat Parki4 March 20222With Disabilityor Ethnic MinorityNarayan Bhatta4 March 20243Nominated1Narayan Dahal12 April 20222 Chair of the National AssemblyAnjan Shakya18 April 20243
Judicial branch