Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli proposed to hold by-election for vacant House of Representatives (HoR) seats during the all-party meeting at Baluwatar on Saturday raising further questions about the general convention of Nepali Congress (NC) that already looks in doubt due to delay in distribution and renewal of active membership.
NC Vice-president Bimalendra Nidhi rejected the proposal outright pointing that the main opposition party has already scheduled its general convention from August 23-26. NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba also said by-election cannot coincide with the general convention.
But Oli pointed that by-election should be held within six months of the seats becoming vacant and assured that he is ready to pave the way for further delaying the general convention. "NC's general convention is a serious issue. We will see about your general convention. Let's hold the by-election in August," Oli stated.
Deuba, whose four-year term expired in March 2020, had given himself a one-year term extension which meant his term would expire on March 3, 2021. The party had also decided to hold the next general convention from February 19-22, 2021. But it could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
NC delayed the general convention further taking help from the Constitution which has a provision of a six-month extension for parties in special circumstances. "Provided that in case election of the office bearers could not be held within five years due to situation arising out of special circumstance, there shall be no hindrance to make provision in the statute of a political party to hold such election within a period of six months," states the provision in Article 269(4b) of the Constitution related to political parties.
The Constitution will have to be amended to delay the general convention beyond August. PM Oli did not explicitly talked about Constitution amendment but he hinted at that by saying that he is ready to pave the way for postponing the general convention.
