Ila Sharma, ex-Nepal poll commissioner, dies of cardiac arrest

Sharma had been rushed to a hospital 500 metres from their residence but didn’t make it, he said. Her two daughters from her first marriage are observing a 13-day mourning, and Quraishi said he left it to them to decide how to conduct her last rites. Her funeral was performed at the electric crematorium in the Pashupatinath temple area on Sunday.

Her first husband, Nabaraj Poudel, a Nepal police officer, had been killed by Maoist insurgents in the late 1990s in western Nepal. She was working as a journalist with The Rising Nepal, a government daily, at the time, but the responsibility of raising and educating two daughters changed her priorities.

She pursued higher studies at England’s University of Hull and got a law degree, and once her daughters grew up, she explored new possibilities.

She was appointed as an election commissioner in 2013 for a five-year term at the age of 46.

It was in this avatar that she met Quraishi, 78. The two had crossed paths at SAARC-level EC seminars and other regular bilateral trainings and meetings in Nepal, India and abroad. Ten years ago, they decided to get married.

Sharma was born, brought up and educated initially in Varanasi, where her parents had a publishing business. She settled down in Nepal after her marriage to Poudel in the early 90s. According to those who knew her, she was fond of reading Sanskrit books every chance she got.

Of late, she had been shuttling between Delhi and Nepal as she was teaching law, part-time, at a college in Delhi.

As an Election Commissioner of Nepal, Sharma handled the portfolios of electoral law, directives, media, gender and inclusion, and the 2nd five-year strategic plan, according to her profile on the World Economic Forum website. With over 25 years of experience in media, public relations, law and development, her interests included “trade and development, economic justice, electoral justice and peace building”.

The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu held a condolence meeting in her memory on July 14. On July 13, the UK Embassy in Nepal also condoled her death, noting she shared a special bond with the UK, “having pursued an LLM in International Business Law at the University of Hull in 2001 as a Chevening Scholar”.

In a post on X, Quraishi noted the outpouring of condolences, saying she was “former Election Commissioner, lawyer, journalist and kind soul, she touched many lives with grace and compassion.” —With inputs from Damini Nath in New Delhi