Politics of Nepal

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.

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.

The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Nepal a "hybrid regime" in 2022, 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.