Nepali Congress (NC) central member Shekhar Koirala has demanded start of the process for the party's 14th General Convention.
Taking to the social media on Thursday Koirala, who has long been preparing to contest for the party's top post, has pointed that the ward level election which should have been completed on July 27 have yet to be held, and demanded that the process be started soon to ensure that the general convention is held on time.
NC has yet to resolve the dispute about active membership. The probe committee under Ramesh Lekhak has been given until two Thursday afternoon to resolve the dispute.
Koirala has opined that the delay has created doubts whether general convention being held on time.
He has warned that the party's legal status would end if the general convention were not held on time and asked whether the top leaders realize that the party's status constitutionally is ending on September 8. "The exercise that is not even in the party statute continues. What kind of practice is this when office-bearers and former office-bearers meet continuously but the process for general convention does not move forward? Who will give answers to that?" he has asked.
He has pointed that the party cannot in any way evade the necessity to hold the general convention on time. "What answers will we give to to the coming generation, society and our well-wishers if our party considered the academy for democratic exercise fails to even hold the general convention on time? I, therefore, urge that the process for general convention be immediately started," Koirala has stated.
The party has scheduled to hold the general convention from September 1-4 but cannot delay it further.
NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, whose four-year term expired in March 2020, had given himself a one-year term extension which meant his term expired 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 party will violate the Constitution if the general convention were to be delayed beyond September.
