Kathmandu, February 11:

As the date for Constituent Assembly election is drawing close, political parties are themselves bogged down in the hair-splitting job — meeting the conditionality for fielding

candidates under the Proportional Representation (PR) system.

Bharat Pathak, a representative of the Rastriya Prajantantra Party who took part in a simulation exercise conducted by the Election Commission (EC) here today, was lecturing his group members on the procedure but soon realised his understanding was far from satisfactory.

“I am still confused about this part of the rules,” he said towards the end of the exercise. He was not alone to have experienced such a difficulty. Upendra Gachchhadar, president of Nepal Loktantrik Samajbadi Dal, was fully unaware of the highly mathematical rules of PR system until before the exercise. Even at the end of the exercise he was not fully clear. Earlier, political representatives from 63 parties out of 74 registered with the EC took part in an interaction organised by the commission to raise awareness on the PR rules. Later, they took part in a simulation exercise by splitting into eight groups.

Given the complication of procedures, said Raju Man Singh Malla, joint secretary at the EC, software will be provided to all the parties that will guide them to field the closed list of candidates in a more comprehensive way. In case the fielding is wrong, the software will indicate how to proceed correctly. So, the representatives will find it easy to field the candidates, Malla told this daily, adding that the EC will always be available to help the parties in all possible ways.

Addressing the gathering, EC Chief Bhojraj Pokhrel said that though the government has categorically said it is their duty to ensure peaceful polls, it is the understanding between all the political parties that will ensure a safe and secure atmosphere for the polls.

Dismissing the allegation of the EC being the puppet of the Seven-Party Alliance, he said that the commission has always remained neutral and if that was not the case the commission would not warn the government about the dolling out of a million rupees to each MP and revival of the local bodies. Many participants had expressed concern about the threat to security.

According to the election laws, parties will not necessarily have to be inclusive if they field below 20 per cent of the total of 335 seats. If a party fields for over 20 per cent seats the ratio for inclusion for Madhesi is 31.2 per cent followed by Dalit’s 13.0 per cent, Marginalised and Indigenous Nationalities’ 37.8 per cent and backward regions’ 4.0 per cent. Such parties are required to field 30.2 per cent of candidates from casts and communities other than Madhesis, Dalits and Indigenous communities.