Kathmandu, July 8

Amid pressure from party leaders to begin preparations for the 14th General Convention, the Nepali Congress has started homework to form interim lower-level committees in line with the amended party statute.

At a meeting of the Central Working Committee yesterday, leaders agreed to start preparations for the next general convention after formation of interim lower-level committees. The tenure of the existing CWC expires in mid-March.

As part of the homework, office bearers and the party’s Central Election Committee today discussed constitution of interim committees in seven provinces, four districts (Rukim East, Rukum West, Nawalparasi East and Nawalparasi West), 165 federal electoral constituencies, 330 provincial electoral constituencies, 753 municipalities and rural municipalities, and 6,743 wards.

As per the provision in the NC statute’s Article 72 (4), the NC should constitute the above mentioned interim committees through respective conventions, following which the issuance of active membership will be done. After the issuance of active membership, general convention representatives are elected. Each of the 165 federal electoral constituencies will elect 25 general convention representatives.

As per the statute’s provision for the transition phase, interim committees are constituted through the convention of representatives of the 13th General Convention.

However, to begin the process of the constitution of committees, the party has to adopt new rules in line with the amended statute. The NC’s Rules Drafting Committee led by Ramesh Lekhak presented the draft regulation as per the amended statute in the Central Working Committee yesterday, and the next CWC meeting scheduled for Friday is expected to endorse the new rules.

NC Vice-president Bimalendra Nidhi said today’s meeting between office bearers and the election committee discussed how to conduct elections for interim committees, what type of election calendar should be prepared, and what initiatives the election committee should take to make the process a success. The meeting will continue for a few more days. “Once we complete our homework, we will discuss it with party President Sher Bahadur Deuba, senior leader Ramchandra Paudel and other leaders and office bearers before finalising it,” Nidhi told The Himalayan Times. “Formation of interim committees will then immediately begin.”

NC Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma said the party planned to complete formation of interim committees and begin the process of issuance of active membership by mid-September. “After the issuance of active membership, we can come up with a timeline for the 14th General Convention,” said NC Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma.

However, leaders representing rival factions of the party are pressing the establishment faction to adopt a tentative, if not precise, timeline for the general convention, suspecting that the party president was making efforts to postpone the general convention. The party’s statute provisions general convention every four years, while the president can postpone it by another one year in special circumstances. Moreover, the country’s constitution allows postponement by another six months.

“Yes, this is a special circumstance. But it calls for early general convention, not postponement,” NC leader Nabindra Raj Joshi told THT, adding, “There’s need to instil new energy in every level of the party after the new statute restructured the party’s organisation in line with the country’s new federal structure. And, only an early general convention can do it.”

Joshi said reinvigorating the party structure was needed also to enable the party to counter unconstitutional activities of the government from the grassroots level. “It does not matter how many months it takes to hold the general convention, but beginning the process is important,” he said.

Another NC leader Pradip Paudel said if the party did not begin the process of holding the general convention now, it could not hold the jamboree even if the CWC tenure was extended by another one-and-a-half years.

“Our view is let’s fix a month, if not date, for the general convention and work accordingly,” he told THT. “It’s a different thing if it is delayed despite honest efforts. But intentional delay is not acceptable.”