Electoral constituency division

The constitution of Nepal on Article "84" Sub article "1" section "a", regarding the delineation of electoral constituencies, states that:

One interesting things to note in this particular regard. How does the constitution seek to divide the electoral constituencies on? Presumably, it's geography and Population. While the term "Population" seems straight forward. The definition of population is generally understood to be the total number of people residing in a particular place at a particular time. Geography, meanwhile, is defined to be the nature and relative arrangement of places and physical features. What does Geography mean when division of electoral constituencies is concerned? Does it mean Area? Not exactly.

This clearly shows that area of a particular district is not, in fact, what the constitution means by "Geography". Rather specificity of geography, convenience and various abstract aspects have been included under the term. This denotes that while population remains the major mathematical basis for dividing the constituencies, there are other factors, non-mathematical and abstract, which can impact the division, and are to be sorted out by the Electoral Delimitation Committee. The same provision is echoed in the related law on Article "3" Sub article "1" published in the Nepal Gazette 2073 which uses the terms "bhaugolik anukulata tatha bisisthata"(translated as geographical convenience and specificity) on top of Population Density.

The chairman has been quoted to have explicitly mentioned 10% weightage to the geographical factors. What would 10% mean when the constitution gives an abstract identity to the "Geography" term? That's a question which remains to be pondered upon.

Moving on, a special provision exists in the law published in the Nepal Gazette 2073 which states that every district must be given at least one electoral constituency irrespective of the Population of the district. And following the same provision, the districts like Mustang, Mugu, Dolpa have been given 1 electoral constituency even though the population density is way below the ideal population density for an electoral constituency.

This means that ideally i.e. if division is to be made solely on the basis of population, every constituency should have a population of approximately 1,60,573. Since, there's also a factor of geography and also that population distribution ideally cannot be uniform on point, a variation in population per every seat can be expected to vary.

Now, if the division had just been on the basis of population, Sarlahi should have been allocated around 5 seats. However, it has been allocated 4 seats. It can be safely assumed that the "geography" factor came into play during the division in this case.

It would, then, seem reasonable to allocate 11 seats to Kathmandu. However, since Kathmandu can be considered to have a high measure of geographical convenience, it has been allocated just 10 seats. Such an impact of "Geography" can be seen in other districts like Bardiya, Baitadi, Chitwan, Ilam and Makwanpur.

A detailed list of how allocation of districts would have looked like if it had been done only on the basis of Population and how it looks in actual case has been attached below. Feel free to ponder more on how "Geography" factor might actually have been quantified.

Reference: UNFPA NEPAL 2017, "Nepal Population Situation Analysis", nepal.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Nepal%20Population%20Situation%20Analysis.pdf