Only five parties will become national party while almost a million votes secured by the other parties will be wasted with vote counting of the federal and provincial elections held on November 26 and December 7 reaching the final stage.
A total of 9,503,618 votes for proportional representation (PR) system for the federal parliament have been counted by Sunday morning, according to the Election Commission (EC).
CPN-UML is leading with 3,161,295 votes which is 33.2 percent of the total valid vote. Nepali Congress (NC) is around 50,000 behind at 3,111,643 (32.7%). CPN (Maoist Center) is third with 1,295,903 (13.6%).
Only two more parties have crossed the three-percent threshold necessary to become national party. Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJP) is fourth with 470,486 and Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) fifth with 469,461. Both the Madhes-based parties have secured around 4.9 percent of votes.
The rest of the parties including Bibeksheel Sajha Party, RPP, Naya Shakti Party, Nepal, RPP (Democratic), Nepal Workers and Peasants Party and others together have secured 994,830 votes (10.46%).
These parties that have failed to cross the three-percent threshold cannot send lawmakers through the PR system. "The votes they received are as good as being invalid," EC Spokesperson Nava Raj Dhakal said. "The seats will now be allocated considering only the total votes received by the parties that have crossed the three-percent threshold as valid."
A total of 110 of the 275 lawmakers in the federal parliament are elected through the PR system.
