The Election Commission has found errors of some kind in the closed lists of candidates submitted by all political parties for the proportional representation (PR) category.
According to the office of the PR election official at the commission, errors have been found in the lists of all 58 parties that submitted their closed lists. The commission has emailed all parties to correct these errors.
Fifty-four parties are contesting the House of Representatives election scheduled for March 5 with their own symbols, while 10 parties are contesting under 4 shared election symbols.
"Some are missing signatures. Many lists have duplicate names," an official from the office told Setopati. "A duplicate name was found in the Nepali Congress list. In the UML list, a person meant for one cluster was found entered under a different cluster."
According to the commission, some parties have even included names of individuals under 25 years of age in their lists. As per the Constitution, a candidate for the House of Representatives must have completed 25 years of age. The commission has found the names of five such individuals from various parties and has emailed the parties to have the names removed.
"Many parties have submitted names of individuals under the backward area category whose citizenship must be verified," the commission official said. "Only citizens from the 9 districts designated as backward areas can be submitted under this category. For others, citizenship verification is required."
Similarly, as some parties did not submit names for the persons with disabilities category, the commission has instructed them to do so. On Friday, the Supreme Court also ordered the commission to arrange for the submission of names of persons with disabilities in the closed lists.
Parties now have one week to correct and resubmit their lists to the commission. After parties correct their lists, the commission will publish them for claims and objections.
