The eighth general convention of the CPN-UML has concluded by passing an amended statute,

the party’s new direction, and by electing directly, for the first time, the office-bearers to all the central posts — the central committee members, the chairman, the three vice chairmen, the general secretary, and the three secretaries. Out of the 1,820 delegates, 1,793 had voted.

After all efforts at a consensus candidate for chairman had failed, Jhalanath Khanal and Khadga Prasad Oli fought it out, with Madhav Nepal having opted out of the contest on the ground that whoever might win, the party would lose for lack of consensus. The two sides had formed their panels. The new general secretary, Ishwar Pokhrel, belongs to the Khanal panel, while, for the three seats each for the posts of vice chairman and secretary, both sides are evenly balanced in representation, with one independent backed by both sides for each of the two posts. As initial results show, both sides are likely to be represented well in the new central committee.

All the three top leaders — Khanal, Madhav Nepal and Oli — have, by and large, taken the outcome of the election in the right spirit. Oli said that whoever won or lost was a personal matter and would last only for a limited period, but the establishment of a democratic system and process would be permanent. He promised support for the new leadership in every ‘right’ course of action it would take. Khanal, on his part, said that he would move along on the basis of collective leadership of the party, and work for the expansion of the present coalition, with focus on constitution-making, bringing the peace process to a logical conclusion, and strengthening national unity. Nepal gave sober advice to both the winning and losing sides that victory should not be allowed to go to one’s head, or defeat to become the cause of a sense of pain, and that both should move together. This is the spirit both sides should imbibe, as it would complete the fully democratic and direct election system for all central positions that the CPN-UML has adopted. Otherwise, this exercise, which should deservedly hold an example in internal democracy for several other parties including the Nepali Congress, would remain somewhat flawed.

And to this end, both Khanal and Oli have made encouraging statements after the poll outcome. The statute is there, and the general convention has decided the direction in which the CPN-UML should move for the next five years. The electoral processes and the results of the party elections have both given a mandate for collective leadership, with the chairman as its executive head. Many have portrayed the Khanal-Oli contest as being related to the stability of the present government and to whether the CPN-UML should work closely with the Unified CPN-Maoist or with the NC. Admittedly, it is hard to dismiss this view completely. But what is of much greater importance is the need for broader political unity, including the NC, to complete the common tasks before the nation. If the new UML leadership can steer the party towards that end successfully, it will have done its duty to the nation well.