Moreover, the democratic manner in which the elections were held is a milestone of sorts in the grand old party’s history because it used to face a lot of questions about the quality of its internal democracy and transparency in the past. Thirty of the 64 elected Central Working Committee (CWC) members of the NC impressively represent Nepal’s long-oppressed marginalized groups. The election of 33 new faces as members of the CWC, mostly youths, also clearly reflect the voters’ desire for change.
Along with all these laudable achievements that the general convention has been able to achieve, there are many pressing issues that the new leadership of NC led by its president, Sushil Koirala, need to take up seriously. Hardly anyone disagrees that there is a need to reestablish and consolidate the party’s organizations at the grassroots level that was devastated during the decade-long Maoist insurgency. It has been quite a while since the second-largest party in the Constituent Assembly paid attention to lure youths to its fold. As a result, the party that used to have one of the strongest bases at the local level has been reduced to one of the weakest among the three major contemporary political forces of the country.
Likewise, reactivating the long-defunct sister organizations is another long-pending party agenda. Except a few, most sister organizations are on the verge of death and breathing a new life into them is a Herculean challenge that the new leadership must take up without any further delay. The newly-elected young and energetic CWC members can be entrusted with coming up with a set of new strategies to revamp the organizational structure of sister organizations. Maintaining financial transparency, which essentially means disclosing all incomes and expenses, is another equally important issue that demands urgent attention.
Though the issue of financial transparency is something that all parties in the country need to take up, NC, by virtue of being one of the country’s oldest political forces, must take the lead and set the way for others to follow.
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