Seven political parties in Nepal accorded status of National Party: Election Commission

Nepal's Election Commission on Friday said seven political outfits, including the newly-floated Rastriya Swatantra Party have been accorded the status of a National Party.

Securing a three per cent of proportional representation vote is mandatory to become a National Party in Nepal.

The CPN-UML, Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party and Janamat Party have been accorded this status, the Kathmandu Post newspaper quoted Guru Prasad Wagle, spokesperson at Nepal's Election Commission, as saying.

Six political parties — the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML, the CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN (Unified Socialist), the Janata Samajbadi Party and the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party — held the national party status in the last House of Representatives Representatives elected in 2017.

The Nepali Congress has so far bagged 55 seats under the direct election to the House of Representatives to emerge as the single largest party in the parliamentary elections.

The opposition party CPN-UML has won 44 seats. So far election results of 162 seats have been declared.

In the 275-member House of Representatives, 165 will be elected through direct voting, while the remaining 110 will be elected through a proportional electoral system.

A party needs at least 138 seats to form a majority government.

Under the proportionate voting method, CPN-UML has secured the highest number of votes, 27,73,999 followed by Nepali Congress with 26,44,241.

CPN-MC has secured 11,61,256 and RSP has secured 1119,996 votes. Similarly, RPP, JSP and Janamat Party have secured 5,85,921 votes, 4,20,931 votes and 3,94,345 votes respectively.

Meanwhile, repolling was conducted in Bajura-1, Syangja-2, Dolakha-1 constituencies where disputes occurred among various political parties.

Counting in these three constituencies began on Thursday and continued on Friday.

The results are expected in a couple of days.

According to Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, the entire election process will come to an end by next week.

Elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) and seven provincial assemblies were held on November 20 to end the prolonged political instability that has plagued the Himalayan nation.

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