“Earlier, 124 political parties had applied at the EC for participation under the PR system, but only 122 parties have submitted the lists today [Friday],” said EC Spokesperson Bir Bahadur Rai. He said the EC will later find out which are the two parties that did not submit their lists.[break]
Political parties had earlier on Thursday submitted their candidates for the 240 constituencies under the first-past-the-post electoral system.
Informed leaders from the major political parties said that they have submitted only draft lists to the EC so that they could meet the deadline. As per the EC calendar of events, the political parties must submit their lists of PR candidates by Friday, but they can make corrections and adjustments when the EC returns the list to the political parties for that purpose.
As per the schedule, the parties can make corrections and adjustments in the lists of names and submit the final lists by October 16. Leaders from most of the major political parties informed that the parties will submit their detailed final lists only by mid-October.
After that, the EC will make public the final list of all candidates and call on the public to submit any claims or complaints, if any, against the candidates.
Leaders from the parties submitted only the draft lists as they were busy selecting candidates under the first-past-the-post system until Thursday.
The MPRF-Democratic submitted a list of 334 PR candidates to the EC. According to party leader Parmanand Mehta, the party has prepared a list that strikes a balance among women, dalits and various other communities.
TMDP leader Brijesh Gupta said they have submitted a list of 99 PR candidates to the EC. According to him, 50 percent of the candidates are women.
The Upendra Yadav led MPRF-N nominated 100 PR candidates for submission to the EC. Party leader Amresh Narayan Jha said his party has allocated over 50 percent PR seats for women. He claimed that the MPRF-N has included some family members of martyrs of the Madhes movement in the PR list.
Laxman Lal Karna, co-chairman of the SP, said his party submitted a list of 100 candidates under PR. “We have nominated 50 percent candidates from among women and the dalit, Muslim and hill communities and various ethnicities,” said Karna.
“We have selected PR candidates representing only 20 Tarai districts,” he said.
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