The country has entered the House of Representatives elections with political parties submitting their closed lists of candidates for the proportional electoral system.

The Commission had called for submission of closed lists of proportional candidates on Sunday and Monday. By 2 am on Monday, all the processes were completed and the closed lists of 50 parties were registered with the Commission. 11 other parties were also in the process of submitting their closed lists by paying a deposit of Rs 50,000. 

This is the highest number of 61 parties participating in the proportional election since the promulgation of the constitution by the Constituent Assembly. Earlier, 47 parties in the 2079 House of Representatives election and 49 parties in 2074 submitted their closed lists to the Commission. 

Political parties including the Congress and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were in an internal meeting after midnight on Monday to decide on proportional candidates. The UML, the NCP and others submitted their names to the Commission late in the evening. Representatives of the Congress and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) reached the Election Commission with the closed lists after 1 am. The Commission had kept its office open throughout the night for the registration of candidates.   

Only on Monday, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Ujjaya Party Nepal (UPN) and the CPN (Maoist) and the Civil Liberties Party (CLP) have united. After the party unification, Ujjaya Nepal has withdrawn its closed list from the Commission.

On the first day, Sunday, only the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, Nepal Democratic Party and the National Janamorcha submitted their closed list to the Commission. On Monday morning, the hustle and bustle of political party leaders, cadres and supporters started at the Commission premises.

Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari said that the parties have shown enthusiastic participation in the elections. ‘Now all doubts/doubts about whether or not there will be an election are over,’ he told Kantipur. ‘The country has moved a long way ahead for the 21 Falgun elections with all the doubts over.’

The Commission had given time from 21 to 23 Mangsir to the parties participating in the proportional representation elections to register. During that period, 88 parties had applied to contest with a single election symbol and 12 parties from 5 separate groups. After that, some parties have gone through the unification process, while some have agreed to submit names from a single party through a functional unity. ‘Some may have registered their parties but not submitted the closed list for proportional representation,’ said Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, spokesperson for the commission. ‘Only the symbol of the party submitting the closed list remains on the ballot paper for proportional representation.’ 

110 members are elected to the 275-member House of Representatives through the proportional representation system. After the seats are determined based on the votes received by the parties, candidates will be elected from the ‘clusters’ of the closed list according to their serial numbers. There is a legal provision that only candidates from parties that receive at least three percent of the total votes in proportional representation can be elected.

In the 2074 election, only UML, Congress, Maoists, Rastriya Janata Party and Federal Socialist Forum had secured 3 percent of the votes. 44 parties did not get seats as they could not secure 3 percent of the votes. In the 2079 House of Representatives elections, UML, Congress, Maoists, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), RPP, JSP and Janamat Party secured 3 percent of the votes on the proportional representation side. The votes of 40 other political parties were less than 3 percent. 

Political parties should get the closed list approved by the central committee and submit it along with a certified copy of the decision. The names of candidates from the relevant inclusive groups should be submitted on the closed list according to the population percentage of the inclusive group revealed by the 2078 census. A closed list of at least ten percent of the total number of members determined for proportional representation should be prepared. At least 50 percent of the candidates should include women. 

A political party submitting a closed list of 110 candidates on the proportional representation side should name 15 Dalits, 32 Indigenous Peoples, 33 Khas Aryas, 18 Madhesis, 7 Tharus and 5 Muslim community members. Out of them, at least 57 should be women and 4 should be from backward areas. A party participating in the proportional electoral system must submit a closed list with the names of at least 11 candidates. If only 11 names are submitted, there must be 1 Dalit, 3 indigenous people, 3 Khas Arya, 2 Madhesi, 1 Tharu and 1 Muslim. 

The Commission will investigate the closed list submitted by the party and inform the concerned party to correct it as needed. The time limit for that is 15-20 Pus. The political party will have to amend the closed list of candidates and submit it within 21-27 Pus. According to the election schedule, if a candidate wants to withdraw his name from the closed list, he must apply by 28 Pus. The Commission will inform the concerned political party about the withdrawal of the candidate on 29 Pus. The time limit is from 30 Pus to 2 Magh to send the name of another candidate for the vacant seat due to the withdrawal of the candidate. 

The Commission will publish the closed list on 4 Magh. The time limit for opposing the claims against the qualifications of the candidates included in the closed list is 5-10 Magh. The commission has set 11-17 Magh to investigate and take a decision on the claims and objections. If someone's name has to be removed due to claims and objections, the commission will publish a notice on 19 Magh. After that, the final exclusion list will be published on 20 Magh.