Journal of Social and Political
Sciences
ISSN 2615-3718 (Online)
ISSN 2621-5675 (Print)
Published: 09 January 2020
Vote Shifting Patterns: Comparative Cases from the Constituent Assembly Elections in Nepal
Amrit Kumar Shrestha, Shyam Prasad Phuyel, Kamal Kumar Poudel
Tribhuvan University, Nepal
Download Full-Text Pdf
10.31014/aior.1991.03.01.141
Pages: 1-12
Keywords: Constituent Assembly (CA), First-Past-The-Post (FPTP), Vote Shifting, Electoral Politics, Elector
Abstract
As the literature on electoral politics reveals, vote shifting is one of the most politically sensitive issues. This article focuses on the vote shifting pattern of electoral politics of Nepal. It is based on the secondary data from the first and the next Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in 2008 and 2013 respectively, published by the Election Commission of Nepal. It aligns with the mixed of quantitative and qualitative approaches. It is limited to the data that belong to the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system covering 240 constituencies and party-wise vote shifting pattern. The results show that a higher vote shifting pattern was marked in the 2013 CA election in comparison to the 2008 CA election. The results also show that the Nepalese voters show a cyclic tendency towards electing a new political power at the cost of the traditional one(s) as their political aspirations are not achieved.
References
- Archer, K., & Johnson, M. (1988). Inflation, unemployment and Canadian Federal voting behaviour. Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Comedienne De Science Politique, 21(3), 569-584. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3228753
- Baral, L. (1995). The 1994 Nepal Elections: Emerging trends in party politics. Asian Survey, 35(5), 426-440. doi:10.2307/2645746
- Bartle, J. (1998). Left-Right position matters, but does social class? Causal models of the 1992 British General Election. British Journal of Political Science, 28(3), 501-529. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/194267
- Blais, A. (2004). How many voters change their minds in the month preceding an election? PS: Political Science and Politics, 37(4), 801-803. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4488912
- Butler, D. (1955). Voting behaviour and its study in Britain. The British Journal of Sociology, 6(2), 93-103. doi:10.2307/587476
- Devkota, G. B. (2058 BS). Political mirror of Nepal (Part 1) (in Nepali). Kathmandu: Dhruba Bahadur Devkota.
- Election Commission (1992). General election in Nepal 1991, Kathmandu: Election Commission.
- ---. (2051 BS). House ofRepresentatives members' election – 2051 BS: election result description (in Nepali). Kathmandu: Election Commission.
- ---. (2056 BS). House of Representativesmembers' election – 2056 BS: Election result (in Nepali). Kathmandu: Election Commission.
- ---. (2065 BS). Constituent Assembly members' election 2064 BS: Election result manual (in Nepali). Kathmandu: Election Commission.
- ---. (2070 BS). Constituent Assembly members' election 2070 BS: Election result manual of first-past-the-post-election system(in Nepali). Kathmandu: Election Commission.
- Gaige, F., & Scholz, J. (1991). The 1991 Parliamentary Elections in Nepal: Political Freedom and Stability. Asian Survey, 31(11), 1040-1060. doi:10.2307/2645306
- Government of Nepal (GoN) (2007). The Interim Constitution of Nepal, 2007. Kathmandu: Law Book Management Committee.
- ---. (2015). Constitution of Nepal, 2015. Kathmandu: Law Book Management Committee.
- Gupta, A. (1964). Politics in Nepal. Bombay: Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
- Gurung, H. (1982). The sociology of elections in Nepal, 1959 to 1981. Asian Survey, Vol. 22(3), pp. 304-314. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2644032, Accessed: 05-11-2015.
- Johnston, R., Propper, C., Burgess, S., Rebecca Sarker, Anne Bolster, & Jones, K. (2005). Spatial scale and the neighbourhood effect: Multinomial models of voting at two recent British General Elections. British Journal of Political Science, 35(3), 487-514. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4092241
- Jōji, W. (1980). Social structure and voting in Japan: A multi-dimensional approach to the study of ideology and voting behaviour. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice, (5/6), 170-183. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23160424
- Manchanda, R. (2001). Where are the women in South Asia conflicts? In R. Manchanda, Women, war and peaces in South Asia: Beyond victimhood to agency (pp. 9-39). New Delhi: Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
- Pokharel, B., & Rana, S. (2013). Nepal: vote for peace. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd.
- Shastri, S. (2003). Continuity with change: Shifting paradigms in India’s electoral politics. Paper prepared for presentation at the Conference on the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems being jointly organized by CSES and IDEA at Stockholm, Sweden on 3-4 October 2003.
- Thapa, M. S. (2013). Forget Kathmandu: An elegy for democracy. New Delhi: Aleph Book Company.
- Toros, E. (2014). Social indicators and voting: The Turkish case. Social Indicators Research, 115(3), 1011-1029. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24720445
- Zamfira, A. (2015). Methodological limitations in studying the effect of (inter) ethnicity on voting behaviour, with examples from Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia. Erdkunde, 69(2), 161-173. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24585789