Parties submitted their final lists of proportional representation (PR) candidates for the November 20 federal and provincial polls to the Election Commission on Sunday, correcting the lists they had submitted earlier.

As per the election schedule, the candidates who wish not to participate in the polls can withdraw their names by Monday (10am to 12noon).

According to the election authority, as many as 48 parties have presented their closed lists. Among them, 12 were asked to finalise their lists by Sunday.

Surya Aryal, assistant spokesperson for the Election Commission, said they will make the closed lists of candidates public on October 8, a day before nominations are filed for the first-past-the-post election.

Once the candidates withdraw their nominations, the commission will ask respective parties to replace them.

“After the Election Commission makes the PR lists public, it would be easier for the parties to select [other] candidates,” Aryal told the Post.

However, the final list of the PR candidates will be published on October 26 after completing all the processes.

On November 20, as many as 275 members for the House of Representatives will be elected including 165 through direct election (FPTP) and 110 from the PR system. People vote for a political party under the proportional representation system of election.

For the 550 seats of the seven provincial assemblies, 330 are elected through the FPTP system and the remaining 220 through the PR system.

“Actually, we did not have much to correct but we submitted our final list by removing some technical errors in our previous list,” said Dev Prasad Gurung, general secretary of the CPN (Maoist Centre).

A major problem was in the Nepali Congress as its dissident faction led by Shekhar Koirala had expressed its disagreement with the list prepared by party president Sher Bahadur Deuba. However, on Sunday, the two factions agreed to a revision and submitted a final list to the commission.

Congress’ PR list includes Bimalendra Nidhi, Farmullah Mansur, Jeevan Pariyar, Prakash Sharan Mahat, Ananda Prasad Dhungana, Tek Prasad Gurung, Gopalman Shrestha, Romi Gauchan Thakali and Khuma Prasad Aryal, among others.

The CPN-UML also corrected its list to accommodate some former Maoists who had joined the party a year ago. Party sources said leaders including Hemraj Rai, who came from the Janata Samajbadi Party, and Shree Jagebu, who had quit the Maoist Centre, were put on the list.

CPN (Maoist Centre) has listed Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Ganga Narayan Shrestha, who is from the Nepal Samajbadi Party led by Baburam Bhattarai, among its proportional representation candidates. The party has forged an electoral alliance with the Maoist Centre and also decided to contest the elections under the Maoist poll symbol.

Janata Samajbadi Party has Ranadhoj Kandangwa, Aang Kaji Sherpa, Rudra Gurung, Mandhoj Blon, Angdendi Sherpa, Sushila Shrestha, Sumi Lama, Ranju Thakur, and Rekha Yadav among its PR candidates.