KATHMANDU: As many as 24 political parties including the Naya Shakti Party Nepal (NSPN) on Thursday objected to the Election Commission's decision to shun parties not represented in the Parliament from obtaining party-wise election symbols.

Organising a press meet at the NSPN Central Office at Babarmahal today, the parties claimed the Election Commission ridiculed the best practices of multiparty democracy.

The parties argued that the fundamental right to carry out election campaigns with own election symbols and political ideologies was bestowed to them by the Article 270 of the Constitution as well as the universal values of the multiparty democratic system.

Speaking at the programme, the NSPN National Affairs Mechanism coordinator Parasu Ram Tamang blamed the government that it, despite its decision to hold the local level elections, failed to create a conducive environment for the same.

Rijwan Aansari of the Nepal Federal Socialist Party and Ashok Kumar Yadav of Aam Admi Party Nepal also spoke at the programme.