Formal registration of CPN-UML (Socialist) led by Madhav Kumar Nepal with the Election Commission will take some time.
The Election Commission will take some days to complete the registration process as the regulation will have to be first amended in accordance to the ordinance about political parties issued by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Wednesday.
An Election Commission official said the Khanal-Nepal faction only informed the Election Commission on Wednesday and formal registration will be done a few days later after the regulation is amended and the amendment is published in the Nepal Gazette.
"We are currently preparing draft of the regulation. The Election Commission board will probably pass it today itself. The Law Ministry will have to endorse the regulation passed by the Election Commission and publish it in the Nepal Gazette," the official added.
The regulation to be published in the Nepal Gazette will also include the format for application about splitting of parties and the faction will have to apply for registration accordingly. "The Election Commission will see if the party's name, statute, manifesto, names and signatures of the central members, and all other requirements including 33 percent representation of women are all right," the official elaborated. "The Election Commission will then summon those wishing to register the new party for verification. The new party will be registered after they arrive on the day summoned and verify."
The official claimed that who went to the Election Commission on Wednesday will have no meaning and only those lawmakers and central members who go to the Election Commission on the day they are summoned for verification will remain in the party.
Second generation leaders of the faction including Bhim Rawal, Surendra Pandey, Ghanashyam Bhusal, Gokarna Bista, Yogesh Bhattarai, Raghuji Panta and others did not go to the Election Commission on Wednesday while Ashta Laxmi Shakya switched camp to be appointed chief minister of Bagmati.
The days required for formal registration will buy time for the second generation leaders to decide whether to remain in UML under KP Sharma Oli or join the new party.
The ordinance issued on Wednesday allows split of a party with support of just 20 percent in either the central committee or parliamentary party. The current act about political parties required support of 40 percent in both the parliamentary party and the central committee to split any political party.
