Kathmandu, December 11

As all parties are required to ensure 33 per cent representation of women in the Parliament, the CPN-UML may be required to elect all women members from among the   proportional representation candidates list.

This is mainly because only a very few UML women candidates won parliamentary first-past-the-post election.

As per the constitution, the party has to ensure 33 per cent women representation in the parliament which includes the 275-member House of Representatives and the 59-member National Assembly.

According to the Election Commission’s poll data announced at 9:00pm, parliamentary FPTP candidate Pabitra Niraula who won from Jhapa-2 is the only female candidate of the party among the 76 UML FPTP winners. Two other women FPTP candidates are leading from among the five constituencies where the party is leading.

Likewise, very few male candidates from the CPN-Maoist Centre are likely to get elected under the PR election as the party needs to ensure 33 per cent women in the Parliament.

Out of 32 FPTP seats the party has won thus far, only three women candidates — Bina Magar, Kamala Roka and Pampha Bhusal have won the election. The party is leading in three other seats.

However, more male candidates will be elected from the Nepali Congress, as the party has won only a few parliamentary FPTP seats. The NC won 21 parliamentary FPTP seats.

EC information officer Surya Prasad Aryal said the parties have to get at least three percent of total valid PR votes to get at least one PR seat in the parliament. He said that votes of those parties, which failed to meet the vote threshold, would only remain in the EC’s record and the poll panel would consider votes of those parties that have won three per cent or votes as 100 per cent votes and determine the number of PR seats for winning parties on the basis of sainte-lague formula, said Aryal.

He said that the poll panel would divide the PR seats among parties, as per their PR votes and it would ask them to submit names of candidates from the final list that they had submitted earlier.

Political parties will have to meet the reservation criteria while selecting the names of PR candidates from among the reservation clusters.