KATHMANDU, Dec 30: A total of 60 political parties have initiated the process of submitting the closed lists of candidates under the Proportional Representatives (PR) system for the upcoming March 5 House of Representatives election, within the deadline set by the Election Commission.
The Election Commission had on Sunday formally called all 100 political parties that have registered to participate in the PR election to submit their lists by Monday.
“A total of 60 parties have deposited the required security deposits to file their PR names with us,” Suman Ghimire, information officer at the EC, told Republica as of 10:00 PM on Monday.
“We hope the number will rise by midnight,” he added, expressing confidence that all the parties that pay the security deposits will be registered for the PR candidacy.
Major parties to submit PR lists to EC today
The EC has fixed the security deposit of Rs 50,000 per party for the registration.
Major political parties, including Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, and Nepali Communist Party (NCP) – the erstwhile CPN Maoist party, also submitted their closed PR lists. New parties, often looked upon as alternative forces like Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), also submitted their lists.
NC has arranged the selection of PR candidates on the basis of internal factions in a 60:40 ratio. Party insiders said that 60 percent of the PR candidates will be largely shared by leaders loyal to the establishment faction, which includes leaders like Prakash Man Singh, Krishna Prasad Sitaula and Bimalendra Nidhi, while 40 per cent of PR candidates will be shared by rival faction leaders like General Secretary Gagan Thapa and senior leader Shekhar Koirala.
In the CPN-UML, the majority of the PR leaders were selected by the newly-elected officer bearers led by Chairman KP Sharma Oli. Party insiders said that former CPN-Maoist leader and vice-chairman of the Party Ram Bahadur Thapa is presented as the first PR candidate of the party.
Similarly, in RSP, 30 per cent of the PR candidates will be from Kulman Ghising-backed Ujyaalo Nepal Party, which just merged with the RSP. Similarly, Balendra Shah, mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City and the prime ministerial candidate representing RSP will get 20 per cent of the candidates.
The PR list of all parties should have at least 50 per cent women representation, including leaders from marginalized communities.
Nepal adopted a mixed electoral system after the 2008 Constituent Assembly election, introducing proportional representation alongside the first-past-the-post system. The PR mechanism was also used in the 2013 Constituent Assembly election and the parliamentary elections of 2017 and 2022.
Deputy spokesperson for the EC Kul Bahadur GC said that registration of the parties that entered the EC premises within the deadline and those who submitted the security deposits would continue overnight.
“The registration process might continue tomorrow as well for those parties who are now (by 10:00 PM ) in the EC premises and those who submitted the deposit amounts,” said GC.
One party can file upto 110 PR candidates.
After the submission of the closed lists of PR, the EC will take five days from December 30 to January 4 to check if any mistakes were made while suggesting the names. If the proper percentage of women and Dalits are not fulfilled by the parties, they will be given seven days from January 5 to January 11 to rectify their mistakes. The final list of the PR will be published on January 18.
