Nepal's Election Commission grants recognition to two new political parties

Kathmandu, Aug 25 (PTI) Nepal's election commission on Wednesday granted recognition to two newly-registered political parties - CPN (Unified Socialist) led by Madhav Kumar Nepal and the Democratic Socialist Party led by Mahanta Thakur.

Madhav Nepal had submitted an application at the Election Commission last week for registering a new political party after President Bidya Devi Bhandari issued an ordinance to amend the Political Parties Act 2071, aimed at easing the procedure for political parties to split.

According to Election Commission spokesperson Raj Kumar Shrestha, certificates have been issued for new political parties after verification of the members.

Leaders of both the parties had reached the Election Commission office on Wednesday afternoon and identified themselves before the EC officials.

As many as 55 central committee members and 30 lawmakers of the CPN-UML authenticated the newly-registered CPN (Unified Socialist) party, formally splitting the main opposition CPN-UML - the largest communist party of the country.

Madhav Nepal, a former prime minister, had gone against the party and supported the then Opposition alliance in its bid to topple the government led by K P Sharma Oli. His faction has already made decision to join Sher Bahadur Deuba-led coalition government.

The ordinance recently amended by Deuba-led government has provision to register a new party if the splinter faction secures signature of 20 per cent of either central committee members or Parliamentary Party members.

Before the amendment, provisions of the Political Party Act required dissidents to have the support of 40 per cent of members in the parliamentary party and the central committee to split their mother party.

The recognition of Madhav Nepal led party brings to end a long-standing feud between him and former prime minister Oli in the UML.

After applying for the new party, Madhav Nepal had issued a statement alleging that Oli had pushed the communist movement towards dissolution.

Fourteen lawmakers and 16 central executive members from the JSP party had participated in the verification process while registering a new party under the leadership of Thakur.

Thakur had split the party after the Election Commission granted official recognition to Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajwadi Party, which removed him from the party's executive committee. PTI SBP ZH ZH