At least 68 parties including the Naya Shakti Nepal have staged a sit-in at Shanti Batika in the Capital on Saturday demanding parties' election symbols in the elections.

Naya Shakti Nepal Coordinator and former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai marked the beginning of the sit-in.

On the occasion, Bhattarai said that the peaceful struggle was initiated with the purpose to establish a full-fledged democracy in the republic era and recalled the beginning of the movement for multiparty democracy some 25-30 years from the same venue.

Other speakers at the programme also said that their agitation would continue to safeguard the democracy and against the three-party 'autocracy'.

The fringe parties have been protesting in the recent days demanding constitution amendment for providing election symbols of the concerned political parties registered in the Election Commission. RSS