Kathmandu, May 22

The newly-formed Nepal Communist Party has failed to fulfil the legal requirement of 33 per cent women representation in all party committees, with the party’s central committee only having 16 per cent women representation.

In the 441-member NCP central committee, there are only 70 women, according to the list of NCP central committee members made public by NCP General Secretary Bishnu Poudel today.

The nine-member NCP Secretariat, also known as the party high command, does not have even a single woman member.

Although the party is yet to make public the names of members of the standing committee, which will have 45 members, chances of having 33 per cent women representation are slim, according to women leaders.

Even the Party Unification Coordination Committee and left alliance task forces formed before the merger did not have a single woman member.

“We have been raising this issue continuously. I have informed the public about it through social media,” NCP central committee member Binda Pandey told THT.

Yesterday, Pandey had tweeted: “Hopefully, the Election Commission will keep in mind this fact while approving the NCP’s application for party registration.”

The NCP had applied to the EC for party registration on Thursday. The EC should decide on the application within 45 days after receiving it.

The constitution, the government’s rules and regulations and NCP statute clearly state that all party committees should have 33 per cent women representation. According to Article 15 (4) of Political Party Registration Law, a political party should have at least one-third women representation in all its committees.

Beduram Bhushal, who was a member of NCP statute drafting task force and is a member of the statute regulation drafting task force, said the draft statute of the NCP mentioned 33 per cent women representation in all party committees.

“However, the provision is applicable while electing committee members through the party’s general convention. This is an extraordinary situation just after the unification of two parties,” he said.

A meeting of the task force today gave the responsibility of drafting the statute regulation within three days to Bhusal and Khimlal Devkota.

Not only women, even Dalits and Madhesis are ill-represented in NCP committees.

And the situation is no different in other parties, including the Nepali Congress and Madhes-based parties.

Meanwhile, the NCP has finalised the names of invitee standing committee members. They are Amik Sherchan, Amrit Kumar Bohora, Keshav Badal, Puspa Raj Kadel (vice-chairman of National Planning Commission), Peshal Khatiwada and Somnath Adhikari ‘Pyasi’.

The NCP Parliamentary Party meeting held in Baluwatar today decided to form yet another task force to draft the

parliamentary party statute. The task force led by Bhim Rawal has Dev Gurung, Khagaraj Adhikari, Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, Ram Narayan Bidari and Rekha Sharma as members.

The task force will submit its report within 15 days.