Ram Bahadur Thapa, coordinator of the CPN-UML’s election review and party reorganization task force, is set to present a separate report at the task force meeting on Friday.
The task force had already submitted its report to party Chairman KP Sharma Oli. However, Thapa is preparing to present his own separate report at Friday’s meeting.
The task force’s report was prepared by party General Secretary Shankar Pokharel.
In his report, Thapa has stated that the task force’s report appears to have focused less on reviewing the election and more on creating a basis for reorganizing the party in a way that would facilitate Oli’s removal as party chair.
Thapa has argued that the report analyzed the March 5 election as a separate and independent event, while disregarding the developments of September 8 and 9, the conclusions of the party’s second statute convention held in Godavari from September 5 to 7, the central committee meeting held in Bhanimandal in October, and the decisions of the 11th national general convention held from December 13 to 18, which unanimously approved amendments to the party statute and the formation of the leadership.
“Leaving aside the question of those responsible for the defeat, including the anti-democratic attackers, there appears to be an intention to hold the party chair personally responsible in an irrelevant manner, in the name of an internal assessment rather than conducting an institutional review,” Thapa writes.
Thapa also says that widespread discussion and publicity suggesting that the party’s reorganization would mean removing the chair from his position had created confusion among party members and the general public following the formation of the task force.
“The present context is entirely different. There is no basis to claim that the party’s principal leadership has bowed before reactionary forces or foreigners, entered into inappropriate or wrong alliances, acted against the spirit and essence of the party’s general convention, failed to run the party successfully, failed to safeguard the party’s fundamental interests and character, failed to work in the interests of patriotism, social justice, and people’s livelihoods, or otherwise failed to provide leadership in any theoretical, ideological, policy or programmatic sense and therefore become unfit for the position and deserving of replacement,” Thapa writes in his report.
Therefore, Thapa says, attempts to remove the party chair were futile.
“In conclusion, any attempt to remove the party chair, who was elected with around 75 percent of the vote at the 11th national general convention, is futile. The victory or defeat in a single election cannot be sufficient grounds for either challenging the leadership or removing it,” his report states.
