The Election Commission has agreed to political parties’ request to extend the deadline for submission of proportional representation candidates by five days.

“We have granted a five-day extension as per the request of the political parties,” said EC spokesperson Bir Bahadur Rai. “We hope that this will be the last request and the parties will submit their names as promised.”

The deadline set by the Election Commission would have expired at midnight today. Chief Election Commissioner Nil Kantha Upreti had earlier requested political parties to keep the deadline and submit their names by midnight. However, the Commission met today morning and decided to extend the deadline. The political parties are now supposed to submit their names for PR seats by 30 December.

Representatives of the major parties, including Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, UCPN (M) and Madhesi parties, had requested the EC for another five day extension on Tuesday evening.

The parties headed to the Commission after finally forging a consensus to bring all parties into the Constituent Assembly. The parties have signed a four-point agreement which includes formation of a parliamentary commission under the CA to investigate vote rigging, continuation of High Level Political Committee, formulation of constitution in a year and formation of Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

“The parties were busy in discussions to select the candidates,” said CPN-UML leader Raghuji Pant after submitting the request. “We have finally reached an agreement and believe that the parties will surely meet the next deadline.”

This is the third extension to the deadline to submit names for PR seats. The Commission had originally set the deadline for 10 December after releasing the seat numbers per party on 3 December. First extension to the deadline, until 15 December, was made on Nepali Congress’s request. The Commission granted a second extension until 25 December on request of all parties.