Kathmandu, December 18

Nepali Congress has finally broken the week-long impasse over the party’s statute amendment, with warring factions agreeing on eight office bearers and 161 central working committee members.

As per the agreement reached this evening, the party president, two vice-presidents, two general secretaries and two co-general secretaries will be elected through the general convention, while the treasurer will be nominated by the party president.

Of the 161 CWC members, 33 will be nominated by the president and the rest will be elected through the general convention.

The decision, however, has to be endorsed by the party’s CWC before being tabled in the ongoing Maha Samiti meeting. NC leaders were to convene the CWC later in the evening to get the draft statute endorsed.

NC Statute Drafting Committee Spokesperson Ramesh Lekhak said the draft statute would be sent for printing tomorrow morning. “Hopefully, it will be presented by tomorrow afternoon or in the evening at the latest,” Lekhak told THT.

Earlier, the faction led by senior leader Ramchandra Paudel had demanded all the office bearers be elected, while the establishment faction led by NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba was for electing half of the office bearers and nominating the rest.

The Maha Samiti gathering on the fourth day today witnessed confrontation between some leaders over the delay in the presentation of the statute amendment proposal.

As Deuba prepared to announce the beginning of Maha Samiti proceedings this morning, NC district presidents stood up and started shouting slogans, stating that they would not allow the gathering to continue unless the statute amendment proposal was presented.

However, Deuba ignored the demand and announced the beginning of the proceedings, when some of the district presidents climbed on to the podium shouting slogans. Subsequently, NC Nuwakot district president Jagdish Narsingh KC tried to address the crowd, but NC Co-general Secretary Prakash Sharan Mahat snatched the microphone, silencing KC.

This created a ruckus in the gathering, forcing the president to halt the proceedings until lunch, after which the leaders headed towards NC parliamentary party office in Singha Durbar where the meeting of NC office bearers was under way to reach consensus on statute amendment. The discussion then resumed at around 3:00 pm.

Yesterday too, the Maha Samiti gathering was halted until lunch after Deuba tried to leave to take part in the Singha Durbar meeting.

Delay in forging a consensus on the statute has also resulted in the extension of the Maha Samiti gathering by at least two days.

NC Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma said the gathering, which was planned to conclude tomorrow, would run through Friday. And since the banquet hall where the Maha Samiti is being organised has already been booked for another event after Thursday, the rest of the Maha Samiti discussions will be held at the NC’s central office in Sanepa.

Selection procedure

• Party president, two vice-presidents, two general secretaries and two co-general secretaries will be elected through the general convention
• The treasurer will be nominated by the party president
• Of the 161 CWC members, 33 will be nominated by the party president and the rest will be elected through the general convention