KATHMANDU, AUGUST 18

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has endorsed the ordinance to amend the Political Parties Act 2071, aimed at easing the procedure for political parties to split, on Wednesday.

The ordinance was introduced by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government on Tuesday, to make it easy for the dissidents to split their mother parties.

President Bhandari, at the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, issued the ordinance today pursuant to Article 114 (1) of the Constitution.

The ordinance is likely to help Madhav Kumar Nepal-Jhalanath Khanal faction of the CPN-UML faction that has been playing a crucial role in the formation of current coalition government, and is vital to ensure its continuity.

The amendment ordinance stipulates that 20 per cent or more members of the parliamentary party and the central committee of a political party can split their mother party. Before the amendment, provisions of the Political Party Act required dissidents to have the support of 40 per cent of members in the parliamentary party and the central committee to split their mother party.

Earlier, former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had also tried to issue the ordinance seeking to make it easy to split the party. However, his move was met with fierce criticism within the CPN-UML resulting in the President rescinding the decision.

At that time Oli had stipulated that the Political parties could split the party if 40 per cent or more members of either parliamentary party or the central committee of a political party agree to the split.