CPN-UML and Nepali Congress (NC) have announced to hold their respective general conventions in November.
Ruling NC has already postponed its 14th general convention four times and looks unlikely to hold it even from November 25-29 in Kathmandu as scheduled. UML, on the other, hand, has only recently decided to hold its 10th general convention from November 26-28 in Chitwan and looks set to complete it in November.
The main opposition party has already held ward convention in over 6,000 wards across the country on October 23 and is holding convention of rural/municipalities across the country on Tuesday. It claims that it has held convention in all 6,743 wards apart from those devastated by recent floods and landslides and will complete convention in those wards by November 1.
Former Far West incharge of UML Bhim Rawal said that ward convention has not been held in any district in Far West but the current Chairman in Far West Karna Bahadur Thapa claimed that it has been held even in the province apart from those wards ravaged by the floods and landslides.
"Ward convention has been held in many places of Achham. No ward convention was held in Kailali, Kanchanpur and Baitadi districts. It will be held there on October 29 and November 1," Thapa told Setopati. "The roads are closed in Bajhang. Ward convention has been held at places where it is possible. It has been held at many places of Bajura and Darchula."
The fact that the then Khanal-Nepal faction has already left UML to form a new party has meant that the party has unanimously formed committees at the ward level.
But NC has not been able to even complete ward convention in all the districts. The party that had initiated process for the 14th general convention almost two years back has been unable to resolve the dispute about active membership due to delay in integration of those joining the party quitting other parties.
The dispute about active membership has yet to be resolved in Rasuwa and Rautahat districts while ward convention is uncertain in more districts despite resolving the dispute about active membership.
The party has completed ward convention in 64 out of 77 districts but convention of rural/municipality has yet to be completed in many of those districts. It had planned to complete even district convention in 21 mountainous districts before the Dashain festival but has completed that only in 14 districts.
The party's internal elections are all based on active members. It had 480,000 active members before the 13th general convention but the number has now swollen to 900,000 including 48,000 members who are abroad.
The major bone of contention in the party currently is active membership. It has yet to complete integration of those who joined it from Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Democratic) along with Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar and from RPP along with Sunil Bahadur Thapa.
The main opposition party has organized members, who pay a monthly levy of Rs 30, instead of active members of NC. UML claims its organized members will rise to around one million for the next general convention. It will form working procedure for general convention representatives on the basis of number of organized members which it claims will be finalized in the next two weeks.
Each new organized member must be recommended by two existing organized members of the party. The recommendations made by wards reach the center via rural/municipalities, districts and provinces before the organization department grants membership.
The fact that the dissident faction of UML has largely quit the party will ensure that there will be no controversy about organized membership in UML as has happened in NC.
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 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.
But even that six-month extension has expired now.
