KATHMANDU: The Election Commission (EC) has been calling political parties that submitted their closed lists under the proportional representation (PR) system for the upcoming election of members of the House of Representatives scheduled for March 5, this year, for sequential discussions to point out errors found in the lists.

After examining the submitted lists and holding discussions with party representatives, the EC has stated that it will formally correspond on January 4, asking the parties to correct the identified shortcomings and resubmit the lists.

Assistant Spokesperson of the EC, Kul Bahadur GC, informed Nepal News that discussions are being held by calling representatives of the concerned parties after checking details such as whether the parties have properly complied with inclusive group (cluster) requirements in the submitted closed lists.

He stated that discussions were held on Wednesday in the presence of representatives from 12 parties and added that a schedule is in place to hold discussions with 12 more parties today as well.

A total of 64 political parties submitted their closed lists to the Commission on December 28 and 29, last year. Among them, only 22 parties nominated candidates for all 110 seats. According to the lists, the average number of parties submitting candidates per election symbol stands at 60.

Similarly, the EC stated that 10 parties submitted closed lists for the minimum of 11 positions. Likewise, 10 parties have taken a single election symbol.

Although 93 political parties had applied to contest under this system at the EC, only 64 parties ultimately submitted their closed lists.

The Commission will provide time to parties from January 5 to 11 to correct the submitted details. From January 12 to 17, the EC will examine the corrected closed lists, and the final list will be published on February 3, according to Assistant Spokesperson GC.

For this electoral system, experts from the fields of data, technology, and law are working at the office of the election officer established by the EC.