Kathmandu, April 21

The Nepali Congress and Samajbadi Party-Nepal issued a press release demanding that the government withdraw two ordinances amending the provisions of the Constitutional Council Act and Political Party Act.

The ordinance related to Constitutional Council Act allowed the CC to take decisions on the basis of majority. Similarly, the ordinance related to political parties allows party leaders to split their party if they have 40 per cent support either in the Central Committee or the parliamentary party. Until now party dissidents were required to muster support of 40 members in both the CC and the PP of their party.

A meeting of office bearers of the main opposition Nepali Congress held here today condemned the two ordinances promulgated by the government yesterday terming it the government’s indifference to people’s lives and a bad omen for the democratic constitution.

The main opposition party issued a press release urging the government to withdraw the ordinances amending the provisions of the Constitutional Council Act and Political Party Act.

Stating that the   government had promulgated the ordinances with the intent of sabotaging the democratic constitution, the main opposition urged all political parties, organisations, civil society, media outlets and the public to rise in protest to oppose the two ordinances.

The NC said the constitution had incorporated a special provision related to the Constitutional Council with a view to ensure common ownership of CC office bearers but the ordinance promulgated to amend the provisions of the Constitutional Council Act undermined that spirit of the constitution.

The NC said that the ordinance related to the Political Party Act undermined the spirit of the constitution that had incorporated the provision to aid political stability in the country.

“The ordinance brought with the aim of aiding splits in parties at a time when the country needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, is contradictory and thus it is a conspiracy,” the NC said in its release.

SP-N said in its release that the ordinance related to Political Party Act would make it easy for those who wanted to split a party using money and power.

The party said the move could create political instability that be detrimental to democracy and political changes gained as a result of people’s sacrifices. The party also urged the people of the country to unite against the ‘anti-democratic move’ of the government.

A version of this article appears in print on April 22, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.