Kathmandu, Nov 30:  Today marks the end of the extended deadline for parties to register for the upcoming House of Representatives elections.

According to the election schedule approved by the Election Commission, parties initially had from November 16 to November 25 to register for electoral purposes. However, since many parties were still in the process of registration and had requested additional time, the Commission extended the deadline by four days.

As of last Friday, 108 political parties had registered for the elections. All parties registered by today will be eligible to contest the House of Representatives elections scheduled for February 21.

Compared to the previous House elections held on November 20, 2022, there is a marked increase in the number of parties participating this time. In 2022, 84 parties contested, whereas this year 108 parties have registered so far, and more are expected before the deadline closes.

Of the new parties formed after the Gen Z movement, 23 have received official recognition from the Election Commission, while 16 others are still in the registration process.

Recently registered parties include Madhav Prasad Khatri’s Citizen Protection Party Nepal and Prakash Khadka’s Nepal Janasewa Party. Other newly registered parties are: Sabin Sigdel’s Progressive Citizen Party, Deepak Kumar Sah’s Sarvodaya Party, and Sarvendra Khanal’s Advanced Nepal Party.

Raman Kumar Shreshtha’s Janadesh Party Nepal, Ganesh Kumar Mandal’s Sovereign Citizen Party, Shriya KC’s Citizen Service Party, Anup Kumar Upadhyay’s Ujyalo Nepal Party, Yogendra Mandal’s National Energetic Party, and Prashant Singh’s People First Party have also been registered.

Earlier registered parties include Harka Raj Rai’s Labor Culture Party, the National Janamukti Party (split from Nepal Janamukti Party), Dinesh Raj Prasai’s Dynamic Democratic Party, and Kabir Sop’s Citizen Emancipation Party Nepal.

Other registered parties include: Nepal Communist Party led by Prachanda and Madhav Nepal, Rajesh Pratel’s National Transformation Party, Riaz Ahmed Shesh’s National Public Opinion Party, Netra Bikram Chand (Biplav)’s Communist Party Nepal, Akbar Khan’s Nation Building Party Nepal, Satyawan Kumar Singh’s Swabhiman Party, Khagendra Sunar’s Hamro Party Nepal, and Ratna Prasad Shrestha’s Citizen Supremacy Party Nepal.

Parties currently in the registration process include: Gopi Lal Nyaupane’s Nepal Liberal Party, Himalaya Bahadur Chand’s Nepal National Youth Party, Chandra Prakash Subedi’s Sundar Nepal Nirman Party, Rajkumar Kakshapati’s CPN (Leftist Center), Sundar Ram Bohara’s Aawaz Party, Prashant Acharya’s Nepali First Party, Ashok Kumar Yadav’s Janata Democratic Party Nepal, and Sandeep Upreti’s National Pride Party Nepal.

Others still in process include: Numa Limbu’s Inclusive Socialist Party, Tikaram Puri’s National Pride Party, Jeevan Limbu’s Ekta Nepal, Kishori Karki’s Navnirman, Laxmi Prasad Khatri’s National Sanatan Party Nepal, Sharad Singh Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party, Kajal Adhikari’s New Nationalist Party, and Shambhu Pokhrel’s Liberal Democratic Party.

People’s News Monitoring Service

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