Kathmandu, November 25

The Nepali Congress has prepared the draft of its new statute with provisions barring party leaders and cadres from shouldering two responsibilities.

This means if somebody is holding certain responsibility in the party, s/he won’t be able to hold any responsibility in party-affiliated organisations and vice versa. Similarly, the new draft proposes that one person cannot be member of two party-affiliated organisations.

The draft states that a person who has served as an NC member for two years or as a member of NC-affiliated organisations for four years will qualify to become active member of the party. As per the draft, a person vying for the post of party president will have to secure more than 50 per cent votes of general convention representatives. If any candidate fails to secure 50 per cent vote in the first round of election, a second round will be held between the two candidates who have secured higher number of votes than other contenders. In the second round, the candidate winning the highest number of votes will be elected  president of the party.

In special circumstances, special general convention can be called any time before the expiry of regular four-year term if 40 per cent representatives of the general convention submit an application for the same. In such a situation, a special GC should be called within three months.

Ten per cent representatives of the GC can seek review of any decision of the Central Working Committee.

The party will have 141 CWC members — up from the existing 85.

A Mahasamiti member can be nominated by the party president only after serving as an active member of the party for 15 years. The GC will have to elect other CWC members from among those active members who have served for at least 10 years as active members.

The GC will elect one vice-president, general secretary and treasurer. Two active members will be elected from GC representatives from each province. Six women will be elected by the GC as CWC members from among women representatives and one will be nominated by the president.

Five Janajati members, including two women, will be elected from among Janajati representatives and one Janajati member will be nominated by the president. One Muslim member will be elected from the GC and one Muslim member will be nominated by the president.

The term of office bearers of all committees will be four years, which can be extended by a year in extraordinary circumstances. CWC can dissolve any committee for violating the party statute and it can hold election within six months to elect office bearers of the dissolved committee. The party president can nominate 30 representatives for the GC and 10 for Mahasamiti from among several groups and communities, including women, Madhesis, Janajatis and Dalits.

NC members will now be called active members. The new statute also incorporates provisions related to working committee, general convention representatives and Mahasamiti members at the province level. There are three disciplinary committees at central, provincial and district levels.

There are 28 departments at the centre and 22 at the province level.

The NC’s statute drafting committee coordinator presented the draft statute in the CWC meeting today.