President Bidya Devi Bhandari has revoked the ordinance about political parties.
The President's Office issued a statement Monday night informing that President Bhandari has revoked the ordinance in accordance to the Cabinet decision earlier on the day and recommendation of Prime Minister (PM) Sher Bahadur Deuba as per Article 114(2b) of the Constitution.
The Cabinet meeting earlier on Monday decided to write to President Bidya Devi Bhandari recommending withdrawal of the ordinance.
The ordinance brought by the government on August 17 allows split of a party with support of just 20 percent in either the central committee or parliamentary party. The act about political parties required support of 40 percent in both the parliamentary party and the central committee to split any political party.
Madhav Kumar Nepal split CPN-UML to form CPN (Unified Socialist) and Mahantha Thakur split Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) to form Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP) after the ordinance was issued.
The Constitution allows the government to recommend to the president to revoke any ordinance. The then prime minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli had also got the ordinance related to the Constitutional Council revoked through President Bhandari.
The government was under pressure from JSP to withdraw the ordinance.
Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was appointed prime minister (PM) on July 13, has not been able to complete the Cabinet in more than two months and has inducted just three ministers from Nepali Congress (NC) and two from Maoist Center and a state minister from NC.
Deuba has not been able to expand the Cabinet due to differences in the ruling coalition about the ordinance making splitting of parties easier.
He was expected to expand it after September 7, the deadline the Election Commission gave to CPN-UML provincial lawmakers and local representatives to join CPN (Unified Socialist). But he has not been able to expand it after coalition partners CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) took different stances on what to do about the ordinance.
Chairman of Unified Socialist Madhav Kumar Nepal wanted the bill to be passed as it is without any amendment in the ordinance fearing any amendment can cause problem for his newly registered party. He was adamant that the bill should not be amended at least until the SC issues verdict on the case about split in UML.
JSP Chairman Upendra Yadav, on the other hand, insisted that the bill should either be revoked or amended before Cabinet expansion pointing that there is danger of another split in the party if some leaders are not made ministers.
The ruling coalition on Sunday decided to withdraw the ordinance to pave the way for Cabinet expansion.
