Keynote speech

Seira tamang

Martin Chautari, Nepal.  

Beyond “Capacity”: Gendered election processes, networks and informality in Nepal’s local governments

There have now been two elections of local officials under Nepal’s 2015 Constitution. As a result of quotas introduced to address women’s chronic minority status in politics, over 14,000 women were elected in the 2017 election, including to the higher posts of mayor and deputy mayor. This talk reports on a review of how women were selected as candidates for local elections with a specific objective of embedding the experiences of the first cohort of elected deputy mayors, roughly 93% of them women. It addresses two distinct but interrelated inquiries. The first seeks to understand the over-representation of men in local political office through an examination of recruitment selection by political parties. The second maps out the main vectors of power in which elected female deputy mayors were embedded by examining the informal networks that exert influence and transcend formal institutional boundaries. Together these inquiries show how successful candidates become enmeshed in patronage networks and clientelist relations.

About the Speaker 

Dr. Seira Tamang is a political scientist by training and her research interests have focused on gender, state, civil society and democracy. She has edited books and is the author of numerous articles in English and Nepali, and has published in journals such as the Feminist Review, Citizenship Studies, Studies in Nepali History and Society (SINHAS), Nepali Journal of Contemporary Studies and the International Journal on Minority and Group Rights as well as in edited volumes. She has extensive experience working with international organizations and civil society organizations, particularly in researching federalism, human rights and dimensions of social exclusion in political and civic spheres. She has been affiliated to the research and policy institute Martin Chautari in Kathmandu, Nepal in various capacities for over 20 years.