Kathmandu, November 24

The Nepali Congress has fielded the highest number of candidates for the parliamentary and provincial assembly elections to be held in two phases on November 27 and December 7.

According to the Election Commission’s data, NC candidates outnumber the candidates of other parties in both the first-past-the-post and proportional representation system.

Out of the 165 electoral constituencies under FPTP system, the Nepali Congress has filed candidacy in 153 constituencies. Similarly, the party has fielded its candidates in 320 out of the 330 constituencies under the FPTP system for provincial elections.

Coordinator of NC election mobilisation committee Bal Krishna Khand said the party had supported candidates of the democratic alliance’s partners in 12 constituencies for parliamentary elections and 10 provincial constituencies.

Among major parties, the CPN-UML has filed candidacy in 103 parliamentary constituencies, CPN-Maoist Centre in 60 constituencies, Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal in 107 constituencies, Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal in 65 constituencies, Naya Shakti Party Nepal in 123 constituencies, CPN -ML in 59 constituencies, Rastriya Prajatantra Party in six constituencies and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Democratic in five constituencies. Of the total 330 constituencies for provincial polls, UML has fielded candidates in 200 constituencies, CPN-MC in 128 constituencies, FSF-N in 181 constituencies, Naya Shakti Party-Nepal in 239 constituencies, RPP in 116 constituencies, RPP-D in 43 constituencies and CPN -ML in 69 constituencies.

UML and CPN-MC have shared all electoral constituencies under the FPTP category for both the polls in the ratio of 60:40 as per the understanding between the alliance partners. None of the political parties have fielded cent per cent candidates under the FPTP system.

The NC is the only party to file candidacy for all 110 seats under the PR system for parliamentary polls. The Election Commission had published the final list of PR candidates included in the closed list on November 19.

Among major parties, the number of candidates of UML in the closed list under the PR category is 109. Similarly, CPN-MC, Samajbadi Janata Party and Janajagaran Party have submitted a joint closed list of 109 PR candidates, FSF-N has submitted a list of 109 PR candidates and RPP submitted 109 names.