KATHMANDU, August 17: The Election Commission has made public the list of 95 political parties with legal status. The details of political parties with valid registration have been made public whereas 41 political parties have been dismissed stating that they have not complied with the criteria set by the law including the audit report for three consecutive years.
According to the spokesperson of the EC, Raj Kumar Shrestha, 41 political parties that have not submitted their audit reports for three consecutive fiscal years have been dismissed and the list of remaining valid political parties has been made public. The EC has also made public the names of the existing parties, party symbols, election symbols, registration numbers and contact addresses. Earlier, there were 136 parties prior to the decision of the EC to scrap parties.
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According to the details made public by the EC, Nepal Workers Peasants Party is registered in the first position, CPN-ML in the second position and Gandhiwadi Party Nepal in the third position. Similarly, the registration number of Rastriya Prajatantra Party is 16, CPN-UML 32 and Nepali Congress 38. Likewise, the CPN-Maoist has been registered in the 37 number, Rastriya Janamorcha in the 41 and Janata Samajbadi Party in the 159 number.
According to the Political Parties Act 2073 BS, the parties registered with the EC are required to keep an account of their actual income and expenditure and submit it to the Commission within one month after conducting an audit within six months of the end of the fiscal year. In case the parties do not submit their audit report within the stipulated time, the commission may ask the parties concerned to submit an explanation within 45 days and the parties have to submit an explanation.
There is a provision for the EC to ask the parties that do not submit the audit report for three consecutive years to correct it within six months and if not, the Commission can deny their participation in the immediate next election. According to the law, the commission can revoke the registration of a party if it commits a misdemeanor more than once or fails to comply with the given order within one year or fails to pay the prescribed fine.
According to the EC, only registered political parties will be allowed to carry out political activities. The Commission has been maintaining that political parties are weak in terms of financial and legal compliance.
