Parties intensify internal discussions to pick PR candidates

Kathmandu: Following the Election Commission deadline of December10 for the parties to submit their candidates for the CA under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system, political parties have begun intra party parleys to pick the names of the candidates.
Nepali Congress (NC), which has grabbed the highest number of seats towards PR system, has intensified the internal discussion from early morning today to select the names of the candidates for the CA. NC, which has bagged 105 seats under direct system, secured 91 seats towards the PR system. NC leaders are busy from the early morning to discuss on the names of the candidates to make them CA member under the PR system.
Likewise, CPN (UML), which won 91 seats under direct system, is also holding its standing committee meeting to select 84 candidates that it has bagged under the PR system. The meeting slated for 3 pm will discuss on picking the names of the CA under PR system, UML Secretary Yuwaraj Gyawali informed.
Similarly, Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP Nepal) has also said that it is preparing to submit the names of the PR candidates to the EC within a week. RPP-Nepal, which failed to win a single seat towards direct electoral system, however, emerged as fourth largest party managed to secure 24 seats under PR system.
However, UCPN (Maoist), third largest party, has said that it would not recommend the names of the candidates unless its demand of forming the probe commission to investigate into the alleged vote rigging is not met. UCPN (Maoist) has won 26 seats under direct system, while it bagged 54 seats towards PR system. The winners of the UCPN (Maoist) under the direct system have not received the certificate from the EC yet.  9 other fringe parties, who have won few seats, are also joining the chorus of the UCPN (Maoist) of vote rigging. They have also said that they would not recommend the names of the candidates until probe commission was not formed.
Earlier yesterday, the EC has made public the total number of the seats secured by the 30 political parties towards the PR system. It has asked 30 parties to recommend the names of the PR candidates to join the CA by December 10. Political parties have to pick the names from the PR list that they have submitted to the EC before the CA polls as per the electoral laws. The laws required the parties to maintain certain per cent of the proportional representation from women, Janajatis, Dalits, Madhesis, people representing from the backward communities and Khas Aarya groups.