175 PR candidates from 17 parties withdraw nominations

BY A STAFF REPORTER, Kathmandu, Jan. 14: A total of 175 candidates from 17 political parties have withdrawn their names from the Proportionate Representation (PR) closed lists submitted to the Election Commission.

Joint Spokesperson of the Election Commission, Kul GC confirmed this on Tuesday. He said the candidates personally appeared before the EC to formally withdraw their candidacies in accordance with the election procedures. 

The Commission has instructed the concerned political parties to submit replacement names from the same respective clusters.

According to the EC sources, the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP) recorded the highest number of withdrawals, with all 110 candidates pulling out. These include 32 from the Indigenous/Ethnic cluster, 33 from Khas Arya, seven from Tharu, 15 from Dalit, 18 from Madhesi and five from Muslim categories.

The withdrawals followed the recent unification of LSP with the Janata Samajwadi Party–Nepal (JSP-N), under which some LSP candidates were moved to the JSP-N PR list.

Similarly, 20 candidates from the Janamat Party withdrew their nominations, including four from the Indigenous/Ethnic cluster and 16 from Khas Arya.

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party saw 12 withdrawals, while six candidates from Janadesh Party Nepal, five from CPN-UML, and four from the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist Centre) also withdrew their names.

In addition, four candidates from Rastra Nirman Dal Nepal, two each from Unnat Loktantrik Party, Nepali Congress, Nepali Communist Party and Rastriya Swatantra Party, and one candidate each from Gatisheel Loktantrik Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Nepal Janata Party, Sanghiya Loktantrik Rastriya Manch and Samyukta Nagarik Party withdrew from the PR lists.

GC said the Commission has directed political parties to submit replacement names between January 14 and January 16. 

The revised PR closed lists will be published on January 18, while claims and objections may be filed from January 19 to January 24.

The Commission will review the objections through January 31 and publish a notice on February 2 if any candidates are found ineligible.

 The final PR closed lists will be made public on February 3.

A total of 64 political parties have submitted the closed lists of their candidates for the March 5 election. Of them, 54 parties filed under their own election symbols, while 10 parties submitted lists under four shared symbols, according to the Commission.

The House of Representatives has 275 members and 110 of them are elected through PR system and 165 through the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system.

Nomination registration for the FPTP system is scheduled for January 19.