According to an EC official, they will soon begin to check the authenticity of voter signatures submitted by new political parties. The EC will match the signatures against signatures in the new electoral rolls it has prepared. Similarly, the constitutional body will verify the numbers on citizenship certificates. [break]
Altogether 34 political parties have filed application at the EC within the last 18 days for registration. Of these, only five -- Nepal Nagarik Party, Jana Prajatantrik Party, National Madhes Socialist Party, Khambuwan Rastriya Morcha and Rastriya Swabhiman Party-- are new parties. The remaining 29 had sent elected representsatives to the then Constituent Assembly (CA).
Asked about the reasons behind the low number of new parties seeking registration, an EC official said, “It is because of the provision requiring the signatures of 10,000 voters for registering.”
However, Election Commissioner Ayodhi Prasad Yadav maintained that the applications filed by the five new political parties show it is not something impossible.
Another EC official added that if applications by political parties keep to the same trend in the remaining 13 days, the number of political parties will be even fewer than in the then CA.
“We conducted a sample test of about 60 signatures from Nepal Nagarik Party and found that only the signature of the party chairman, Krishna Hari Adhikari, was authentic and the remaining signatures were fake,” an EC official privy to the development told Republica on condition of anonymity.
Fringe political parties have been objecting to the provision on 10,000 voter signatures, stating that it is intended to bar them from representation in the upcoming CA.
Asked if the provision on 10,000 voter signatures would be scrapped, Yadav said, “It is up to the government and political parties whether or not to withdraw the provision.”
Altogether 54 political parties contested the CA election in 2008 and 25 of them were elected.
The EC started to register political parties from April 30 in view of the fresh CA polls. The registration process will continue till May 31.
As per the existing provision, the EC can give political parties a maximum of one month to register for elections.
Political parties must submit their respective manifestos, statutes, regulations, flags and election symbols, among other things, while the new political parties must also submit the signatures of 10,000 voters in order to be registered at the EC.
Also, political parties represented in the then CA should submit a letter from the parliament secretariat as evidence of their representation.
The EC has already begun to verify the documents submitted by political parties to get registered.
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