• The Election Commission has decided to recognize the special general convention of Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma based on a majority vote.
• The Commission decided to give legitimacy to the new working committee formed under Gagan Thapa's leadership and remove the working committee of Sher Bahadur Deuba's faction.• The Deuba faction, on the other hand, is preparing to go to court, rejecting the Commission's decision.
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| Source : Social Media |
The Election Commission has decided to give legitimacy to the special general convention called by the then general secretaries of Nepali Congress, Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma, based on a majority vote.
The Sher Bahadur Deuba group, who was elected president at the 14th general convention, and the new working committee, which was elected under Thapa's leadership after a special general convention in Kathmandu from December 11 to 12, had claimed to be recognized. The Thapa-led committee submitted documents claiming legitimacy to the Commission on Thursday and the Deuba-led committee on Friday.
After that, the decision was taken by a majority in a meeting of Acting Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari, and Commissioners Sagun Shamsher Janga Bahadur Rana and Janaki Tuladhar. According to commission sources, Acting Chief Commissioner Bhandari and Commissioner JB Rana stood in favor of giving legitimacy to the special general convention, while Commissioner Tuladhar stood in favor of giving legitimacy to the working committee elected from the 14th general convention.
Acting Chief Commissioner Bhandari and Commissioner JB Rana were of the opinion that the special general convention should be given legitimacy to its decision as it is the highest body of the party. Although Commissioner Tuladhar said that the special general convention should not be given legitimacy, the source said that he did not explain why it should not be given legitimacy.
The commission decided to update the Thapa-led committee to the commission by a majority vote in accordance with Section 51 of the Political Parties Act. That section provides for the updating of the party registration book if there is a change in office bearers in any political party.
In accordance with the same provision, the Thapa-led working committee had submitted a request on Thursday to update the committee unanimously elected from the special general convention. The meeting held today decided to update the decision of the special general convention by a majority vote.
The majority vote of the commission stated that the provision of calling a special general convention after a request by 40 general convention delegates in the Congress's statute 17(2) is binding. The source stated in the decision that the then Central Working Committee could not ignore the demand made by 40 percent of the general convention delegates by explaining the reasons as per the statute.
However, the decision of the commission has not been made public. 'According to the statute, the demand made by 40 percent of the general convention delegates by explaining the reasons could not be ignored,' a source told Ratopati about the majority vote of the commission, 'The special general convention called by the two general secretaries after the central committee called it should be considered as procedural.'
The commission has stated that since the statute gives the responsibility of overseeing the central office to the general secretary, the special general convention called by the two general secretaries cannot be called otherwise.
The commission, which has made the provisions in the party's statute the main basis for its decision, has called the central committee's ignoring the provision in the statute that allows it to demand a general convention a control over democratic practice.
The source says that in the decision, the secretariat has been instructed to remove the names of the former Sher Bahadur Deuba-led working committee from the Congress records and include the names of the office bearers and members elected from the special general convention under the presidency of Thapa.
The commission has said that the decision was taken based on the Political Parties Act, the Constitution and the Nepali Congress statute. The provision that 40 percent of the general convention representatives can demand a special general convention as per the statute, the general convention representative is the highest representative by statute, and since no one disagreed with the request for a special general convention, the special general convention was organized by the majority decision of the commissioners, the source said.
With this decision of the commission, the names of Congress President Thapa, Vice Presidents Bishwaprakash Sharma and Pushpa Bhusal, and General Secretaries Pradeep Poudel and Gururaj Ghimire will be updated.
Similarly, the names of Farmullah Mansur, Uday Shamsher Rana, Dr. Dila Sangraula Pant, Yogendra Chaudhary, Karna Bahadur Budha, Prakash Rasaili Snehi, Bahadur Singh Lama and Muktakumari Yadav are to be updated in the joint general secretaries.
A 135-member central committee including 13 office bearers was unanimously announced under the leadership of Thapa on Thursday morning.
The Commission has informed the Deuba group that the decision has been made without any dissatisfaction and the way to go to court has been kept open. The Deuba side, which gave its initial response that the Commission's decision was made in violation of the law and statute, is preparing to go to court against the Commission's decision on Sunday.
Outgoing acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka, who reached the Commission premises after giving official recognition to the Thapa group, said that the Commission's decision is not valid and that they will go to court.
'The Commission's decision is not valid. We will fight all legal, political and legal battles,' Khadka said, 'Everything has been done in the settings. A conspiratorial decision has been made procedurally. The decision has been made against the Congress constitution.
After the committee he led received the official status, Thapa said that the special general convention was not a matter of dispute and that the Election Commission had made the decision in accordance with the constitution, prevailing laws and the party statute.
Thapa interpreted the commission's decision as a common result of the sincere efforts made for meaningful changes in the Congress and the progress of the country. He said that the party will now run not by the wishes of the leader but by the wishes of the general members. Thapa urged all leaders and workers, whether they participated in the special general convention or not, whether they agreed or disagreed, to be restrained and responsible without considering this issue as a win or loss.
Nepali Congress's Sher Bahadur Deuba faction's Vice President Purna bahadur Khadka has reached the Election Commission. He reached the commission premises after the commission decided to grant official status to the Gagan Thapa-led Congress on Friday evening.
He said that the commission's decision is not acceptable to them. He said that he will fight all legal, political and legal battles. He also said that everything is in the settings.
Stating that the process was procedurally conspiratorial, he also said that the commission's decision was against the constitution of the Nepali Congress.
