Oli speaking about Nepal’s first elected woman parliamentarian makes three mistakes

Sujit Mainali / December 19, 2016

CPN-UML Chairman and former prime minister KP Oli.                                                         Photo: Youtube.com

At a function organized at Padma Kanya College, Kathmandu on December 11, CPN-UML Chairman and former prime minister KP Oli said:

“From our capital city, a woman representative [to parliament] was elected in 2008 [BS] by the votes of both men and women, it was [in] 1951. That happened in the capital in 1951…but in the USA, women got voting right in 1965.”

South Asia Check found three factual errors in this statement.

First error

Nepal had not seen any election until 1959. Therefore, election of a woman to parliament in 1951 is out of question.

Second error

The woman suggested by Chairman Oli is Dwarika Devi Thakurani. But she was elected to parliament in Nepal’s first election in February, 1959 from the Nepali Congress party.

And she was elected from Dadeldhura district, not from Kathmandu.

After her election, she was appointed as deputy minister at the Ministry of Health and Local Self-Governance. She became the first woman parliamentarian and minister of Nepal. (Bhuwan Lal Joshi and Leo E Rose, Democratic Innovations in Nepal: A Case Study of Political Acculturation)

Third error

Women in the USA got voting right in 1920, which is 45 years earlier than claimed by Oli.

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