More than half of the political parties contesting the March 5 elections have begun campaign activities without publishing their manifestos, going against the Election Commission’s directive and the election code of conduct. Major parties, including the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, are among those that missed the deadline.
The Election Commission had instructed all contesting parties to make their manifestos public by Sunday before starting full campaign activities on Monday. However, only 31 out of 68 participating parties met the requirement, while 37 failed to do so.
The election code of conduct requires political parties to release their policy commitments before launching campaign programmes. It also mandates parties to submit their policy documents to the commission and requires independent candidates to submit their plans to respective election offices.
Although candidacy registration was completed on January 20, parties and candidates have only 15 days for active campaigning. Campaigning will continue until March 3, after which a 48-hour silence period will begin ahead of voting day.
Election officials have described the situation as concerning, noting that established parties are leading in violations of the code of conduct. Some parties are preparing to release their manifestos later, while others have only made partial policy commitments public. The commission has decided to seek written clarifications from parties that failed to follow the directive.
The commission has also instructed provincial and constituency election offices to keep records of submitted manifestos and report the details. Overall, 3,406 candidates are contesting the elections, including around 1,160 independent candidates competing for 165 first-past-the-post seats.
