KATHMANDU, AUGUST 14
The ruling Nepali Congress today decided to hold its 14th National Convention from November 25 to 29 in Kathmandu.
The Central Working Committee meeting of the party today took a decision to this effect by amending the calendar of events announced earlier by the party.
The Nepali Congress decided to push the date of the National Convention further after it failed to hold the National Convention on the scheduled date due to dispute over active membership distribution.
Earlier, the NC had decided to hold the party's 14th National Convention from September 1 to 4 in Kathmandu.
NC leader Pradip Paudel said that Central Working Committee today unanimously endorsed the new calendar for the National Convention.
As per the new calendar of events, the ruling party will finalise the list of the party's active membership by August 18, hold ward-level convention across the country on September 3, local level convention on September 12 and the province constituency level convention on September 17. The party also decided to hold the federal electoral district level convention on September 21, district level convention on September 26, and the provincial level convention from October 26 to 29.
In response to a journalist's query, Paudel said that the amendment to the calendar of events would not violate the time limit for holding the National Convention as the party would begin its ward-level convention on September 3. He said the party had deferred the date for National Convention after holding consultations with the Election Commission and lawyers.
As per the legal provisions, a political party must hold its national convention within five-and-a-half years.
This time, the NC will be crossing the five-and-a-half year time limit to elect its central office bearers, but NC lawmaker Radhe Shyam Adhikari said that as ward-level convention would start on September or within five years and six months, it could not be argued that the NC would violate legal provisions.
As per the NC statute, the elected office bearers have a tenure of four years, and their tenure could be extended up to five years and six months at the most.
NC had held its National Convention in March 2016, which had elected Sher Bahadur Deuba the party president.
Nepali Congress President Deuba, Vice-president Bimalendra Nidhi, senior leader Ramchandra Paudel, General Secretary Shashank Koirala and CWC member Dr Shekhar Koirala have all expressed their desire to contest for party presidency.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 15 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
