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.

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.