EC determines election symbol for political parties

KATHMANDU: The election symbols for the local level election have been fixed and included in the ballot paper. The election of 753 local levels across the country is taking place on May 13. 

The Election Commission stated that the election symbol of the six nationally-recognized political parties have been fixed based on the number of votes they garnered towards the proportional election system in the election to the House of Representatives in 2017. 

In that election, the CPN (UML) bagged 3 million 173 thousand 494 votes, the Nepali Congress 3 million128 thousand 389 votes, the CPN (Maoist Centre) 1 million303 thousand 721 votes and the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal 942 thousand 455 votes.

The parties that participated in the 2017 House of Representatives election towards the proportional election system, which have registered with the Election Commission for the local level election and are active in the district will be allocated the same election symbol they had been allocated before although they have not got the recognition as  national party. 

Election Commission spokesperson Shaligram Sharma said that the Commission has decided to include the election symbols of such political parties in the ballot paper of the districts concerned for the purpose of the local level election. 

The Election Commission on March 27 decided to include the election symbol of such parties in the ballot paper of the districts concerned for the purpose of the upcoming local election. 

However, the candidates contesting the election from those parties, the certified district-wise particulars are not included but which have registered for the purpose of the local level election, and the independent candidates would be assigned the election symbol from the ‘independent symbol group’ determined by the Commission. 

Of the 79 political parties contesting in the local level election, six parties are recognized as the national parties while 23 parties have participated in the election before this.

 Likewise, 40 political parties have got approval from the Election Commission to contest the election this time. RSS