Pokhara, 7 December| A total of 114 political parties have been approved to participate in the upcoming House of Representatives election scheduled for February 21 (Falgun 21). Out of 120 applications received by the Election Commission, 102 political parties have filed applications to contest the election individually, while 12 parties have applied to participate jointly using a single election symbol. Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, spokesperson for the Election Commission, confirmed that 114 parties have received approval to contest the election.
Spokesperson Bhattarai clarified that the 12 political parties that opted for joint participation have formed different groups (some with two, some with three parties) and will utilize five election symbols collectively. Thus, a total of 114 parties will participate in the House of Representatives election through 107 election symbols. The Election Commission has already approved the applications of these political parties. The Commission initiated the electoral program for the Proportional Representation (PR) system on Sunday. Parties wishing to participate in the PR system can submit their applications until Tuesday. These applications will be studied and approved by December 11 (Mangsir 26). Furthermore, the timeline for submitting the closed list of PR candidates has been set for December 28 and 29 (Pus 13 and 14), with the Commission mandating that 50 percent of the candidates must be women. The nomination schedule for the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system is set for January 20 (Magh 6).
