# First General Election (18 February – 3 April 1959)

URL: https://allhistories.com/nepal/timeline/1959-first-general-election
Location: Nepal
Themes: Constitutions, Parliament

Nepal held its first democratic general election between 18 February and 3 April 1959, in phases. About 1.79 million of roughly 4.25 million registered voters took part, a turnout of 42 percent. The Nepali Congress won 74 of the 109 seats in the House of Representatives, with the Gorkha Parishad second on 19. The poll followed the new constitution and years of delay since the 1951 promise of elections. Regional parties, conservative groups and communists contested alongside the Congress, whose leader B. P. Koirala won his own seat. Voting had to be staged over weeks because of poor roads, long distances and difficult mountain terrain. Koirala became the first democratically elected prime minister of Nepal. His government lasted only eighteen months before the king dismissed it, yet the election remained the reference point for democrats for three decades. The vote gave the Congress a lasting claim to the heritage of democratic legitimacy and shaped later demands for a return to multiparty rule. At this point in the timeline (1959), the Kingdom of Nepal was under King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah (13 March 1955 – 31 January 1972), while Prime Minister Subarna Shamsher Rana (15 May 1958 – 27 May 1959) headed the government.

## Why it matters
It was Nepal's first and, for thirty-one years, only multiparty national election, and a lasting democratic reference point.

Ruler at the Time: [Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah](https://allhistories.com/nepal/rulers/mahendra-bir-bikram-shah)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — 1959 Nepalese general election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Nepalese_general_election)
- [Wikipedia — B. P. Koirala](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._P._Koirala)
- [Wikipedia — Nepali Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepali_Congress)