85 candidates from 17 parties have withdrawn their names from the closed list of candidates submitted by the parties in the proportional representation. The Election Commission had set Monday (December 28) as the deadline for withdrawing names from the closed list. The staff of the Commission is continuing to verify the names of those who have withdrawn their names till late at night.

The people whose names were included in the closed list withdrew their names by appearing in person at the commission. Most of the parties withdrew their names as they were made candidates under the proportional representation system.  

The highest number of people from the Janmat Party, 21, withdrew their names. 12 from the RPP, 5 from the UML, and 2 each from the NCP and the Congress, withdrew their names.  

As confirmed by the commission till late night, Dhruv Bahadar Malla and Sirjana Malla from the Congress and Duf Bahadur Bastola, Hirusara Rana, Anshu Singh, Vijay Singh Lama Tamang and Lal Bahadur Rawal from the UML have withdrawn their names. Similarly, Kamal Ray Yadav and Arvind Das from the NCP have withdrawn their names.

Only one name, Sunita Nhemafuki, has been confirmed till late night from the RSP, while more than a dozen from that party have already publicly announced that they will withdraw their names. Araniko Pandey, Ramji Ram, Tasi Sherpa, Trishala Gurung, Asif Shah, Sachin Dhakal, Mahendra Lawati, Milan Limbu, Sirjana Oli (Sirju), Mohana Ansari, Sajan BK and Sudesh Gurung have publicly announced their withdrawal of names from the list of proportional candidates.

Those who reached the commission premises during office hours to withdraw their names were in the verification process till Monday night. After the JSP and LOSPA merged, the leaders of the two parties were also at the commission till late to include the names of LOSPA candidates in the closed list of JSP.

Ujjaya Nepal Party has decided to support the Rastriya Parivartan Party towards proportional representation. After going through the process of unification with the Rashtriya Prajatan Party, Ujjaya had not submitted its closed list. However, after the unification with the Rashtriya Prajatan Party was dissolved, Ujjaya has included the names of its candidates through the newly formed party Rastriya Parivartan Party for proportional representation. Party leader Jitram Lama has said that proportional votes will be sought under the flute symbol of the National Change Party.

Yagya Bhattarai, head of the Political Parties and Law Division, said that the work of verifying and reconciling which parties withdrew their names from which parties was continuing till late at night. He said that the concerned parties will be informed accordingly after all the verification is completed.

According to the election program, the parties had submitted the closed list of proportional candidates to the commission on 13 and 14 Poush. Closed lists have been submitted by 64 parties to contest the elections under 58 election symbols. The names of 3,424 people from all parties have been included in the closed list for the proportional side. After studying the closed list, the commission has already taken steps to correct the issues that were not in accordance with the rules from the concerned parties. The commission will inform the concerned parties about the withdrawal of the candidate on 29 Poush. 

There is a schedule from 30 Poush to 2 Magh to send the name of another candidate to the vacant seat due to the withdrawal of the candidate. The commission has stated that the party will be allowed to submit another name in the same inclusive group from which the name was withdrawn. 

The commission will publish the closed list on 4th Magh. The time given to contest the claims against the qualifications of the candidates included in the closed list is from 5th to 10th Magh. The time for the commission to investigate the claims and complaints and take a decision is from 11th to 17th Magh.

If someone's name has to be removed due to contestation, the commission will publish a notice on 19th Magh and the closed list of candidates will be finally published on 20th Magh. Out of the 275 seats in the House of Representatives, 110 people are elected through the proportional system. The parties concerned get seats based on the votes they receive in the elections. There is a legal provision that only parties that cross the three percent threshold of the total number of votes will get seats through proportional representation.