A total of 381 candidates have filed nominations to contest this year's parliamentary elections, Election Commission vice-president Ismail Habib has said.

The deadline for filing nominations for the Parliament elections has expired today.

Habib told One today that 86 people had filed their nomination papers to contest the parliamentary elections today alone.

"A total of 381 applications have been received. 86 applications were filed today," Habib said.

Of these, the EC will reject the applications of those who do not meet the eligibility criteria to contest the parliamentary elections, so the numbers are likely to change.

A total of 2,84,337 voters are eligible to vote in this year's Parliamentary elections.

The EC had earlier decided to hold the Parliamentary elections on March 17, but the Parliament amended the election law to hold elections 10 days after Ramadan ends. This decision was followed by an MDP proposal to the Parliament.