Senior Leader of Nepali Congress (NC) Ram Chandra Paudel claimed that there will be no problem about legal status of the party if the ward election were held on September 3.
Paudel last week slammed NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba for not holding the 14th general convention pointing that the party will lose legal status on September 8 if the general convention were not held on time.
But he has changed tack after the party on Saturday unanimously decided to postpone the general convention to November and claimed there will be no problem about legal status. "We are now holding the general convention. The central committee has already issued the schedule. We have moved forward for the general convention," Paudel told Setopati on Sunday. "The Election Commission will also know that we are not trying to avoid the general convention and have not found time while trying to hold it, and have started to hold election at the lower levels."
He argued that starting ward election on September 3, before the deadline of September 8, would mean that there will be no problem about legal status. "We have kept the ward election on September 3 to ensure that we start the process within the deadline extension granted by the Constitution. We have had some discussion with the Election Commission about the matter."
He also assured that the dispute about active membership, that eventually led to postponement of the general convention, will soon be resolved. "Three persons have been handed over the responsibility to resolve the dispute by the central committee. Three colleagues have taken over the responsibility. The dispute may be resolved soon."
He said the general convention must be held in November when asked if it will be held as per the schedule after being postponed five times.
NC has once again postponed its general convention. The party's central committee meeting on Saturday decided to postpone the general convention to November.
The 14th general convention scheduled to be held from September 1-4 will now be held from November 25-29. The ward level election, that was scheduled to be held on July 27, will now be held on September 3.
The party's 14th general convention looked uncertain due to the dispute about active membership in districts including Bara and Saptari. The party had scheduled to hold the general convention from September 1-4 with many NC leaders warning that the party may lose legal status if the general convention were not held in September.
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 postponing it to September 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.
