72 parties registered at Election Commission

Kathmandu Dec 7-The Election Commission has officially granted permission to all 72 political parties that had applied to contest the upcoming municipal elections slated for February 8 next year.

The commission approved the registration of the final 16 on Tuesday. Earlier, 56 political parties had been registered.

Among those registered, 19 are new while 53 are old parties. Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and Nepal Sadvawana Party have already received the status of national parties by securing three percent of the total vote in previous elections.

Of the 72 parties cleared by the Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday for participation in the upcoming municipal polls, 52 (72 per cent of the parties registered for municipal polls) have never taken part in elections.

Of the remaining 20, barring the RPP (which is yet to decide if it wants to contest the polls), only one party -- Nepal Sadbhawana Party -- had representation in the last parliament.
This means, 70 of these parties have never known public trust and never been elected to the highest law making body. The total popular vote garnered by them provides further indication of how many Nepalese they actually represent -- they collectively got less than 2 percent of the votes cast during the last parliamentary polls.

Moreover, a majority of them polled less than 1,000 votes.

128 parties had been registered for the previous general elections.

Two major national parties, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, have not registered at the commission for municipal election purpose. The alliance of seven opposition parties has decided to boycott the municipal polls saying it is a ploy to legitimize the royal government.

Even as the seven major opposition parties have declared to boycott all elections held by the royal government, the EC has said all preparations for the municipal polls have been completed and that they will be held on time