Kathmandu, October 16

A total of 49 political parties today filed the closed list of Proportional Representation candidates for parliamentary elections scheduled for November 26 and December 7.

The Election Commission said the PR list was filed till 5:30am today. The EC, however, had asked the parties to submit their PR lists from 10:00am to 5:00pm yesterday, but very few parties submitted their list within the deadline. None of the major parties had submitted their PR list within the deadline.

The election body allowed the parties to submit their PR lists until today morning.

An EC source said that Nepali Congress filed its closed list only at 5:30am. The NC held its Central Working Committee meeting at the EC’s central office in Kantipath after the party failed to take the final decision on its list.

The CPN-UML submitted its PR list only at 12:00pm. The CPN-Maoist Centre too could not file its list within the given time.

However, representatives of all 49 parties had entered the EC office before 5:00pm yesterday, which was mandatory for filing the PR list.

The EC said 27 political parties filed their PR lists in Province-1, 29 in Province-2, 31 in Province-3, 20 in Province-4, 27 in Province-5, 18 in Province 6 and 20 in Province-7.

The election body said that 55 political parties had taken coupons to submit their PR lists, but only 49 registered their list of candidates for parliamentary elections.

The EC said that parties could correct their name lists till October 23.

Parties will have to submit amended list of candidates to the EC between October 23 and 29.

Candidates can withdraw their names from the closed list between 10:00am and 5:00pm on October 30. Parties can replace their candidates from October 31 to November 1 between 10:00am and 5:00pm.

The EC will publish the closed list of candidates from 10:00am to 5:00pm on November 3.

As per the law, political parties have to ensure 13.8 per cent candidacy for Dalits, 28.7 per cent for Adivashi, 31.2 per cent for Khas/Arya, 15.3 per cent for Madhesi, 3.6 per cent for Tharu and 4.4 per cent for Muslim in their PR list.

Out of 110 parliamentary PR seats and 220 provincial PR seats, parties have to submit the names of 50 per cent women candidates in all clusters for both provincial and parliamentary PR elections.

EC Spokesperson Nabaraj Dhakal said parties could change the names of candidates in the list submitted yesterday if the names under clusters were incorrect. He also clarified that the parties could not change the names of candidates if the ratio of clusters did not match. Dhakal said if a party wins just one seat, then that party will have to select a woman candidate.

The constitution guarantees 33 per cent women representation in the Parliament, which includes the Lower House and the Upper House.