KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 1
CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli filed two writ petitions at the Supreme Court challenging the registration of Madhav Kumar Nepal-led CPN(Unified Socialist). The apex court has listed the case for first hearing on Friday.
Sumitra Pandey filed the case on behalf of Oli against the Election Commission, Office of the Prime Minister, and Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota.
Oli urged the court to nullify the registration of CPN(US) arguing that the new party was formed with the support of 14 lawmakers, who had already been expelled from his party. The UML also demanded that the SC issue an interim order barring the CPN(US) from carrying out activities as a separate political party.
Oli also stated that the EC registered the CPN(US) counting the 14 lawmakers who had been expelled.
Former attorney general Agni Prasad Kharel said that out of 58 UML Central Committee members who had supported the petition to split the party, seven had not signed the petition and yet the EC allowed them to verify their signatures. "Verification of a persons' signature can happen only when somebody has signed the original petition, but seven Central Committee members had not signed the original petition."
Kharel said the prevailing laws did not allow the EC to verify signatures of Jhalanath Khanal from abroad.
UML has said that Speaker Sapkota erred by not issuing a notice confirming the expulsion of 14 UML lawmakers although the party had expelled them.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 2 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
