EC Extends PR List Submission Deadline

The Election Commission (EC) has extended the deadline for the political parties to submit their Proportional Representation (PR) lists by one week. As per the new deadline, the parties will have to submit their PR lists to the EC by December 18. According to EC spokesperson Mahesh Sharma, the deadline was extended as per the request of the political parties. Earlier on December 9, a delegation of Nepali Congress vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel met with Chief Election Commissioner Nil Kantha Uprety and urged him to extend the deadline. Poudel said the political parties are in a process of dialogue and are trying to forge consensus and it would be appropriate to extend the deadline. CEC Uprety had responded positively to the request of NC. Political parties will share 335 PR seats in the 601-member Constituent Assembly based on the number of votes they have received in the November 19 CA elections.

 

Complaint against Kamal Thapa

Seventeen central committee members of RPP-Nepal have filed a complaint at the Election Commission (EC) against the party’s chairperson Kamal Thapa, saying that Thapa arbitrarily submitted the list of Proportional Representation (PR) nominees to the EC. “The Constituent Assembly (CA) election ordinance clearly mentions that the PR list has to be finalized by a majority of the party’s central committee,” said Prahlad Sah, central assistant general secretary of RPP-N, “However, the chairperson (Thapa) has submitted the list highhandedly and without discussing and getting it endorsed through the central committee,” Sah said. He claimed that some of the PR nominees were not even ordinary members of the party. 

 

Singh Sets up Contact Office

Nepali Congress General Secretary and newly elected Constituent Assembly member from Kathmandu Constituency-1, Prakashman Singh has set up a contact office for his constituency on Saturday. Singh inaugurated the office in Bijuli Bazar amid a program today. He said he would be available in the contact office every day for a certain time and will interact with people in order receive their complaints, suggestions and discuss development activities with them.

 

Nepal Urges Ex-cadres to Return to UML

CPN-UML senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal has called on the leaders and cadres, who have deserted UML to join other parties to return to the mother party. Nepal made the call while addressing the inaugural session of the 23rd Conference of All Nepal National Free Students’ Union, Koteshwor Multiple Campus Committee on December 13. On the occasion, he also claimed that the UML was the only patriotic and revolutionary party in the country. The UML leader said that his party would work towards taking the country on the path of prosperity by establishing ever-lasting peace. 

 

‘Not declaring emergency a mistake’

Former Prime Minister and senior UCPN (Moist) leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai has said that he made a mistake by not extending the term of the last Constituent Assembly (CA) through the declaration of a state of emergency.   “…on the night of the dissolution of the CA on May 28, 2012, I had thought about extending the deadline by imposing a state of emergency, although it meant taking the blame myself, and I did announce it but I had to step back under immense pressure, not only from opposition political leaders, but also from my own colleagues. This was the biggest mistake of my life and I very humbly accept it,” Dr Bhattarai said in a statement.