KATHMANDU, Dec 29: The CPN-UML, which has emerged as the largest political party in the recent parliamentary and provincial assembly polls, has drawn the attention of the Election Commission (EC) over the delay in allocating the proportional representation (PR) seats to the political parties, even weeks after the conclusion of the elections.
A standing committee meeting of the party on Thursday urged the commission to immediately allocate the PR seats to the parties, based on the election results. The EC has not allocated seats to the parties even three weeks after the last phase election, stating that the constitution bars PR seat allocation prior to the National Assembly elections.
“We have decided to draw the attention of the EC over the dilly-dallying in the announcement of the election results,” said UML Secretary Pradeep Gyawali. UML's Standing Committee has decided to send an official delegation to the EC to urge it to publicize the election results at the earliest.
Seat allocation among ruling alliance will be decided by tomorr...
The party has claimed that it has smelt a rat as the present government is not willing to pave the way for the formation of a new government according to the election mandate. “The present government has been making unethical decisions prolonging its stay in power and also obstructing the formation of the new government by misinterpreting the constitution,” he said.
The EC has already fixed the PR seats the parties have won in the provincial assemblies. But the commission has not fixed the PR seat numbers to the parties for the House of Representatives showing constitutional hurdles.
Citing Article 84 (8) of the new constitution which states that at least one third of the total number of members elected from each political party represented in the parliament must be women, EC has claimed that it cannot fix the number of women to be elected under the PR category without holding the upper house election first.
Meanwhile, UML has finalized the list of to be elected provincial assembly members for the seats allocated to it under the PR category. The EC has given this week's deadline to the parties for finalizing their candidates under the PR nominations based on the number of seats they have won. UML has won 75 seats of 220 seats in seven provincial assemblies under the PR category.
Meanwhile, a separate meeting of the CPN (Maoist Center) has finalized its candidates to be elected under the PR category in the provincial assemblies. Maoist leader Agni Sapkota said that a meeting of the party's senior leaders including province in-charges of all seven provinces of the party has picked the final list. Maoist has won 35 seats in the seven provincial assemblies.
