Nepal local elections: The law discriminates against small parties as bigwigs keep mum

As the date for the local elections is closing in, all major political parties have started to plan accordingly. But, for small parties, things are not looking too bright as they still do not know what symbol the Election Commission will give them for the forthcoming election.

Section 26 of the Local Level Election Act, 2017, has the provision to hand out election symbols to all candidates of local elections. But, the act states that the symbols of their respective political parties will only be given to candidates belonging to “national parties” as defined by the Act on Political Parties .