EC names winners of provincial PR seats

Published On: January 18, 2018 05:00 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, Jan 18: The Election Commission (EC) has announced the winners of the provincial assemblies elected under the proportional representation (PR) category. Altogether 220 members of provincial assemblies have been elected under PR category.

Issuing a press statement Wednesday, the election body said a meeting of the EC chaired by its chief commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav decided to publish the final PR results of the provincial assemblies. Earlier, the EC had withheld announcing the winners under PR citing the government's failure to name provincial governors and their temporary headquarters. However, the EC had already allocated the PR seats to the political parties on December 22.

The EC declared the winners after transforming number of votes secured by each party into their respective seats on the basis of Sainte-Laguë system as per the Clause 60 (7) of Provincial Assembly Election Act 2074 BS. On Tuesday, the EC during its meeting with the leaders of the five major political parties had said they were working to publish the PR results of the provincial assembly elections soon after the government appoints provincial governors.

The appointment of provincial governors and declaration of temporary headquarters of provinces by the government on Wednesday has paved the way for the provincial assemblies to begin their functions. The EC now will submit the results of PR seats to the concerned provincial governors, who will summon the meeting of the provincial assemblies.

The provincial governor will first administer the oath of office and secrecy to the senior-most member of the provincial assembly and the latter will administer the oath to the other members of the assembly.

Wednesday's EC meeting has also decided to send the names of the winners to the provincial governors and publish the list of those elected under PR in the Nepal Gazette. The EC plans to distribute winner certificates to the elected candidates at the EC headquarters at Bahadur Bhawan at 1 pm, Friday.

Although the EC declared winners of PR seats of provincial assemblies, it has yet to allocate parliamentary PR seats to parties and announce the winning candidates.