A total of 32 political parties have submitted their revised closed lists of candidates to the Election Commission (EC) under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system.

EC’s spokesperson for PR electoral system Guru Prasad Wagle said that total 32 political parties have revised their closed lists and submitted to the EC.

Wagle said on Sunday alone, total 12 political parties submitted their revised closed lists of candidates.

Major political parties, including Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN (Unified Socialist) among others, have submitted their revised lists of candidates, he added.

As many as 48 political parties taking part in the November 20 elections have submitted their closed lists of candidates for the election of House of Representatives on November 20, he added.

According to Wagle, the EC first verified the closed lists of PR candidates from September 20-25 and notified political parties to revise their lists and make them inclusive by adhering to all legal provisions, as per the constitutional and exiting legal provisions.

The EC had allotted September 26 to October 2 to make amendments in the closed lists. However, the political parties are not allowed to enter new names in the lists once the closed list is submitted to the EC. Wagle, however, said while revising the lists of candidates, some political parties had to add new names to make it more inclusive.

If a candidate listed in the revised closed list wants to withdraw his/her name from the closed list of candidates, the EC has allocated 10:00 am to 12:00 pm on October 3 to submit an application.

On the same day, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, the relevant parties are scheduled to be informed about the withdrawal of nominations.

Similarly, the EC has fixed October 6-8 for the political parties to nominate the names of another set of candidates for the vacant posts following the withdrawal of candidature.

Similarly, a final list of the closed lists of candidates will be published on October 26.

The PR system was introduced in Nepal for the first time in 2008 to give the people of marginalised communities space in politics and to build a more inclusive system that is representative of all citizens.

As many as 110 parliamentarians will be elected under the PR system in the HoR and 220 in the Provincial Assemblies.

According to the mixed electoral system, 40 per cent of the members of HoR and Provincial Assemblies are elected through the PR electoral system.