Nepalese Rastriya Panchayat election, 1981

Elections were held to the Rastriya Panchayat (National Parliament) in Nepal on 9 May 1981. 80% of the seats were elected through adult universal suffrage; this was the first election through universal suffrage held in Nepal in 22 years. However, political parties were banned at the time, and the main underground opposition forces (the Nepali Congress and various communist groups) called for a boycott of the election.

The election were the first to be held after the 1980 constitutional amendment. In total there were 112 elected seats, whilst 28 were appointed by the King. According to official reports, 63% of the eligible voters took part in the polls. However, there were some inconsistencies in the report of voting numbers. Voter turnout was 52.2%.

40 out of the 75 districts of Nepal formed two-member constituencies whilst the less populated 35 districts formed single-member constituencies. The 15 mountain districts were all single-member constituencies. The hill districts elected 57 seats, the inner-terai districts eight seats and the terai districts 32 seats.

Initially there were 1,451 total candidates, of whom 353 later withdrew. 70 of the candidates, spread over 43 different districts, had also contested the 1959 parliamentary election. Virtually all candidates campaigned on slogans such as "God and Motherhood", portraying themselves as opponents of corruption and inflation. With the absence of organised political parties in the election, the campaign was rather low-scale. Mass rallies were not held, not even in Kathmandu. Most candidates relied heavily on door-to-door campaigning and canvassing through family, caste and ethnic networks. Candidates also used posters and vehicles with loudspeakers. The spending ceiling of each candidate was fixed at 30,000 Nepalese rupees.

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