Only five parties likely to qualify as national parties

KATHMANDU, Dec 15: As vote counts of the Proportional Representation system of the federal parliament election has reached final stage, only five parties are likely to cross three percent threshold to qualify for the representation in the federal parliament.

Vote count of 73 districts has been completed, according to the Election Commission

As of Friday afternoon, of the 96, 36,276 votes counted, CPN-UML is leading with 3014404 votes, which is 33.75 percent of the total votes cast under PR category. Nepali Congress has received 2941293 (32.93%) votes while CPN (Maoist Center) has 1211996 votes (13.57%). Beside the top three parties, Rastriya Janata Party Nepal and Federal Socialist Forum Nepal are the other parties to have crossed three percent. FSFN has obtained 427098 votes, which is 4.78 percent and RJPN has secured 403005 votes (4.51%).

Vote counting is underway in Sunsari-2 and 3, Sarlahi-2 and 3, Surkhet-1 and Kailali-1, and is expected to conclude by Friday evening, according to the EC spokesperson Nawaraj Dhakal.

The new election law makes it mandatory for a political party to secure at least one seat under the first-past-the-post election and three percent of votes to qualify as a national party. If a party fails to clear the threshold, it will be denied representation at the federal parliament.

The other parties that have not crossed three percent threshold are Bibeksheel Sajha: 200860 votes (2.25%), Rastriya Janata Party: 189910 votes (2.13%), Naya Shakti: 78283 (0.88%), RPP –D: 84875 (0.95%) and Nepal Workers and Peasants Party: 52927 votes (0.59%).

The outgoing parliament has 31 political parties; and it seems that there will be a drastic reduction in the number of national political parties.