• 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.
 |
| 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.
