Election Commission Directs Parties to Submit Proportional Representation Candidate Lists

Kathmandu. The Election Commission has completed the proportional representation vote count and has written to the parties directing them to recommend names from their closed lists based on the number of seats allocated according to the votes received.

Following this, the parties are busy selecting names from the closed lists according to clusters. The Commission wrote to six political parties on Thursday to send the list of parliamentarians according to clusters based on the votes received by the parties that crossed the threshold.

After receiving the Commission's letter, all six parties are working to match the clusters from the names on the closed list. CPN-UML received 1,453,408 votes under proportional representation for the House of Representatives. Based on this, it will receive 16 proportional seats, and CPN-UML is preparing to submit the list of these parliamentarians on Sunday.

According to a leader from CPN-UML, the sorting work is underway to submit the list within the time frame given by the Commission. Sixteen proportional list members will include 33 percent women, and they must also include representation from the Indigenous Nationalities, Khas Arya, Muslim, and Tharu clusters. Since CPN-UML won 25 seats in total from both categories, nine of them must be women to meet the 33 percent requirement.

Accordingly, among the women on the closed list, Bhumika Limbu Subba (Indigenous Nationalities), Padma Aryal (Khas Arya), Ashokumari Baral (Underdeveloped Region), Bishnumaya BK (Dalit), Manjuku Kumari Chaudhary (Tharu), Riganga Yadav (Madhesi), and Sajida Khatun Siddiqui (Muslim) are almost certain to be included. It is reported that one more woman will be included from the women's cluster.

Similarly, Sonam Tshering Lama (Underdeveloped Region), Ram Bahadur Thapa (Indigenous Nationalities), Guru Prasad Baral (Khas Arya), Jit Bahadur Darji Gautam (Dalit), Kripa Ram Rana (Tharu), Chandreshwar Mandal (Madhesi), and Ejaj Alam (Muslim) are likely to be selected from their respective clusters.

Furthermore, one additional woman can be sent from any region. Since no woman won a seat for CPN-UML in the direct elections, nine women will receive positions.