Kathmandu, Jan. 23 -- The final tally of candidates for the March 5 elections stands at 3,406 after the withdrawal and cancellation of over 80 candidacies on Thursday and Friday.

As many as 3,487 candidates from 68 political parties and independents had registered their candidacy on Tuesday under the first-past-the-post category. However, 81 candidates either withdrew their candidacy or had their nominations scrapped by the Election Commission after being found ineligible to contest the elections.

Kul Bahadur GC, assistant spokesperson at the commission, said that while the nominations of nine candidates were scrapped by election officers in the respective constituencies, others withdrew voluntarily. The decision to scrap the candidacie...