KATMANDU, Dec 24: With the allocation of the proportional seats of the provincial assemblies, election officials have begun verifying Proportional Representation (PR) votes cast to the parties in the parliamentary elections held recently before allocating seats for the central parliament.
Officials at the Election Commission (EC) said they need to verify the votes registered in its software once election officers from the districts send the hard copies of votes. The allocation of PR seats of federal parliament will pave the way for the formation of a new government.
"We just dispatched letters to the parties informing them about the number of seats they have won in the provincial assemblies under the PR category. Now, the verification of PR votes cast in the parliamentary polls has just started," said EC Spokesperson Navaraj Dhakal.
42 pc new faces in parliament under FPTP
Dhakal said that the verification of PR votes cast the parliamentary polls will be completed within a couple of days and then the seats won by the parties in this category will be announced.
Asked whether the election body has delayed the allocation PR seats in the federal parliament due to the dispute among the parties over the National Assembly ordinance pending at the Office of the President, Dhakal denied such speculation. "There is no reason to delay the PR seat allocation of federal parliament. We are tallying the votes and it will take two to three more days to complete the process," said Dhakal.
Leaders from the left alliance comprising CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) have demanded that the seats of federal parliament under the PR category be allocated without further delay. Major parties are divided over whether to adopt the majority-based or single transferable voting system while electing the 59-member National Assembly.
On Friday, the EC had allocated PR seats of seven provincial assemblies. According to the poll results, UML, a key ally of the left alliance, won altogether 75 seats in the provincial assemblies followed by the Nepali Congress' 72 seats and CPN (Maoist Center) 35 seats.
Out of the total 53 parties contesting the provincial assembly elections under the PR category only 13 parties succeeded to secure the seats as the election body disqualified those parties which failed to obtain 1.3 percent of the total valid votes cast.
As per the electoral law, altogether 220 members will be elected in seven provinces under the PR category. By going through the poll results, the left alliance of UML and Maoist Center appears to be in a comfortable position to form provincial governments in all provinces except for province 2.
In province 2, NC has bagged 11 seats of the total 43 seats. Rastriya Janata Party Nepal bagged 10 seats and Federal Socialist Forum Nepal won nine seats. The UML obtained seven seats while the Maoist Center got five.
A total of 110 lawmakers of the central parliament will be elected through the PR system whereas 49 parties have contested for the proportional seats. A party needs to acquire three percent of the total valid votes to get seats of federal parliament under the PR category.
