The three-day deadline given by the commission to submit the names of those elected according to the closed list by arranging 'clusters' is ending today.
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The Election Commission has given the parties three days to submit the names of the MPs to be elected for the 110 seats under the proportional representation system. The Commission had sent a letter to the parties on Thursday, stating that after cutting the 'threshold' of 3 percent of the votes received in proportional representation, the RSVP got 57, the Congress got 20, the UML got 16, the NCP got 9, the Shram Sanskriti got 4 and the RPP got 4 seats. The Commission had sent a letter to the parties on Thursday to submit the names of those to be elected according to the closed list by forming 'clusters'.
Although the UML finalized the names of 16 proportional representatives and made them public on Saturday, the remaining parties are making their decisions and submitting them to the Commission on Sunday. There is a legal provision that the inclusive group determined by law must be formed and the order of the names submitted in the closed list must not be changed. The parties will have to submit the names to the Commission within the same limits of the law.
Section 60(6) of the House of Representatives Election Act states that the list should be submitted to the commission in the order in which the names are included in the closed list, with a percentage of Dalits, indigenous peoples, Khas Aryas, Madhesis, Tharu and Muslims represented in the prescribed percentage based on the number of seats won by the party. While submitting the names, the party should submit the names of Dalits (13.8 percent), indigenous peoples (28.7 percent), Khas Aryas (31.2 percent), Madhesis (15.3 percent), Tharu (6.6 percent) and Muslims (4.4 percent).
At least 4.3 percent of the names selected from the inclusive list should be from backward areas.
There is a constitutional provision that 33 percent of the total number of members represented by the party in the parliament should be represented by women. Accordingly, the largest party in the parliament, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), seems to have to recommend a significant number of women candidates through proportional representation. The RSSS is not present in the National Assembly. It has won 182 seats in the House of Representatives, 125 through direct representation and 57 through proportional representation. Due to the compelling situation of having one-third of the total seats represented by women, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) should have 61 women MPs in the House of Representatives. 13 of them have been directly elected. The names of the remaining 48 will have to be selected from the proportional list.
Party spokesperson Manish Jha said that names will be selected from the closed list in a way that includes representation of inclusive groups and women as prescribed by law. He informed that necessary homework is being done for that. A meeting of the party secretariat has been called at 10 am on Sunday to finalize the names. He informed that the decision taken by the secretariat meeting will be approved by the central committee and the names of those elected through proportional representation will be sent to the commission. The RSS, which won 57 seats through proportional representation, will have to send the names of indigenous peoples-16, Khas Arya-18, Tharu-4, Dalit-8, Madhesi-9 and 2 Muslims.
The Congress has won 20 seats through proportional representation. It seems that it will have to select 6 from indigenous peoples, 6 from Khas Arya, 1 from Tharu, 3 from Dalit, 3 from Madhesi and 3 from Muslim. The Congress has 24 members in the National Assembly. In the House of Representatives, 18 from direct and 20 from proportional representation are reaching 38 members. Thus, its representation in the Federal Parliament will be 62. According to the constitutional provision that one-third of the total members in the Federal Parliament should be women, it is seen that 21 women should be represented in both houses from the Congress. The Congress has 5 women in the National Assembly. 1 woman has won the election directly in the House of Representatives. The Congress will have to send 15 women's names out of 20 through proportional representation.
Congress spokesperson Devraj Chalise said that discussions are underway on sending names from the closed list. He informed that the names will be sent to the commission on Sunday after a decision is made by the party's parliamentary board meeting and the central work performance committee.
Similarly, the UML finalized the names of 16 proportional parliamentarians, including 10 women, from the central secretariat meeting on Saturday. The total representation of UML in the National Assembly and the House of Representatives will be 35. UML must represent one-third of that, i.e. at least 12 women. Since there are 7 women in the National Assembly, the party has sent 10 women's names instead of sending 5 women's names through proportional representation. Party Deputy General Secretary Lekhraj Bhatta said that the party has prepared a list of those to be elected by giving priority to new, youth and women.
From UML, Bhumika Subba and Gangadevi Shrestha have been elected as proportional representatives from the Janajati (women), Ram Bahadur Thapa Magar and Kul Bhakta Shakya have been elected as proportional representatives from the Janajati (men). Padma Aryal, Tukabhadra Hamal, Esuda Kumari Baral (backward areas) have been elected from the Khasa Arya (women), Guru Prasad Baral, Pushparaj Kandel have been elected from the Khasa Arya (men). Kuparam Rana (men) has been elected from the Tharu community. Bishnumaya BK and Nita Ghatani have been elected from the Dalit (women). Among the Madhesi women, Ringla Yadav, Yashodha Kumari Yadav and Chandeshwor Mandal have been nominated. Among the Muslim women, Sajida Siddiqui has been nominated. Deputy General Secretary Bhatta said that the selected names will be submitted to the commission on Sunday.
The NCP, which is made up of 25 different communist components, has got 9 seats in the proportional representation. It has won 8 seats in the direct representation. Party leader Dev Gurung said that the closed list has already been submitted and homework has been done among the leaders to select names from it as per the rules. Party coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal and co-coordinator Madhav Kumar Nepal said that they will discuss the matter and finalize the names.
The RPP has called a meeting of the performance committee on Sunday to select names for the 4 seats it got in the proportional representation. The Labor Party, which is entering the parliament for the first time, has got 4 seats in the proportional representation. It has won 3 seats in the direct representation. The party will have to send the names of 4 people, including at least 3 women, in the proportional representation. Pressure has increased within the party as seats are few and aspirants are many. General Secretary Aren Rai informed that the names will be finalized at a meeting of party officials on Sunday.
According to Election Commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, the period given to the six political parties that got seats based on the percentage of votes in the proportional representation route to submit their names within three days by forming inclusive groups from the closed list according to the seats ends on Sunday. 'All issues will be investigated, from whether the names given by the party are on the closed list to the number according to the inclusive group, whether the order of the closed list is correct or not, and whether women are represented according to the constitution,' he said. 'If any errors are found during the investigation, the concerned party will be asked to correct them, and only then will the names of the elected be made public.' He said that the commission will submit a report on the entire election results to the President only after issuing certificates to those elected under the proportional representation route. After that, the path to forming a new government will be paved.
