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Nepal Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Nepal
Official Name: Kingdom of Nepal
Capital: Kathmandu
Area: 140,800 square kilometres ( 54,363 square miles )
Major cities (Population): Kathmandu 363,000 (1990 estimate)
Population: 21,918,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 2.6 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Constitutional monarchy
Independence: 1768 (unified by Prithvi Narayan Shah)
Constitution: 9 November 1990
Voting Rights: Universal at age 18
Government
Under a new constitution approved in 1990, Nepal became a constitutional monarchy. The king is the head of state, and the prime minister is the head of government. The parliament has a partly elected 60-member upper house (National Council) and an elected 205-member lower house (House of Representatives). The country is a multiparty democracy, and the voting age is 18. Below the national level, Nepal has a pyramidal, three-tier system of panchayat (regional and local councils).
Recent History
In 1990 a mass movement calling for democracy brought an end to the monarch’s autocratic one-party panchayat system of government. The change was sudden and dramatic and has ended a long period of political stagnation. The implications for the state are not yet clear. Since 1990 the political situation has remained unsettled, with a succession of three governments holding power, including one Communist government. Nepal is a small country, strategically located between the giants China and India, and must walk a careful political line between them. Nonetheless, since the introduction of democracy, determined efforts have been made to accelerate the pace of development and ease the burden of poverty on the country.
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