The counting of votes for the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly election is in the final stage.
The final results of 162 constituencies, out of total 165 constituencies, of the House of Representatives have been declared so far, while the counting of votes is underway in Syangja-2, Dolakha and Bajura. Counting of proportional representation (PR) votes in these three districts is yet to be completed.
Assistant Spokesperson for the Election Commission Surya Prasad Aryal said about 125,000 to 150,000 PR votes remain to be counted as of 12 am Saturday.
"PR votes in Bajura have not been counted, a little has been counted in Dolakha and about half of the votes have been counted in Syangja-2," Aryal told Nepalkhabar, adding, "Around 150,000 to 150,000 votes are likely left to be counted."
According to him, over 10.08 million PR votes have been counted as of press time. Of this, 10.04 million votes are valid votes, according to the data of the Election Commission.
According to Assistant Spokesperson Aryal, estimated 4 percent of the total votes cast are invalid.
Any party that wins at least one first-past-the-post (FPTP) seat in the House of Representatives and obtains 3 percent (threshold) votes of the total votes on the PR category is recognized as a national party.
Aryal said only seven parties -- CPN (UML), Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), Rastriya Swotantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajwadi Party and Janmat Party -- have met this criteria of being recognized as a national party.
According to him, parties might cross the threshold if they collect around 318,000 votes.
Assistant Spokesperson Aryal said that one to two parties are still trying to cross the threshold, however, with the current ratio of votes coming in, it seems unlikely that more parties will be recognized as a national party from the remaining votes.
Meanwhile, the possibility of the CPN (Unified Socialist) Party seems viable. As of press time, the party has received 294,100 proportional votes. It still needs to get 24 to 25 thousand more votes to cross the threshold (318,000 votes) to be recognized as a national party.
