National
EC allots to parties PR seats in Lower House
The Election Commission on Friday announced the Proportional Representation seats won by the parties in the House of Representatives more than two months since the federal and provincial elections were held.Prithvi Man Shrestha
The Election Commission on Friday announced the Proportional Representation seats won by the parties in the House of Representatives more than two months since the federal and provincial elections were held.
Only five parties—the CPN-UML, the Nepali Congress, the CPN (Maoist Centre) [together with the Samajwadi Janata Party and Janajagaran Party, Nepal], the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal and the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum Nepal have got PR seats at the Lower House as the other 44 parties did not meet the 3 percent vote threshold.
As announced by the EC, the CPN-UML received 41 seats, followed by the NC’s 40, the Maoist Centre’s 17, and six each of the RJP-N and the SSF-N among the 110 seats for proportional representation in the House of Representatives.
The election body also wrote to these five parties, asking them to submit by February 12 their list of candidates to be elected by ensuring representation of at least 33 percent women in the bicameral federal parliament.
The parties will have to send at least 84 women to the Upper House, with the UML requiring to elect at least 37 women. The NC should forward 20 names of women, the Maoist Centre 16, the RJP-N 6 and the SSF-N 5. The number of women elected under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) category is just five—two from the UML and three from the Maoist Centre. The parties will get two more days to correct the lists if they fail to meet the constitutional and legal requirements.
Once the election body declares winners after examining the eligibility of candidates submitted by the parties, the Lower House becomes complete. The process to form a new government will follow. As many as 165 lawmakers have already been elected under the FPTP system. Once the additional 110 members are elected proportionally, the Lower House will have its full strength of 275 members.
After the elections concluded on December 7 last year, the EC had declared winners under the FPTP system by December 13. As the poll body delayed the PR results citing constitutional difficulties, parties associated with the left alliance accused it of withholding the results to prolong the tenure of the incumbent government.
The constitution requires the parties to ensure at least 33 percent representation of women in federal parliament through PR election if the direct poll does not ensure their representation.
“We had no intention of delaying the election results. But we could not have breached constitutional and legal provisions in the name of declaring results faster,” said Election Commissioner Ishwori Paudel.
Left alliance leaders, however, said there was no need for the EC to delay the results as the spirit of the constitution is to ensure as high a percentage of women as possible. “While following the letter rather than the spirit of the constitution, women’s representation is sure to come down in the Lower House than their potential representation,” said Pradeep Gyawali, a UML leader.