KATHMANDU, Feb 27: The Election Commission (EC) has said that it will soon resolve the dispute over the legitimacy of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) at the earliest.
The poll body has been holding a series of both formal and informal discussions and consultations with the parties concerned and studying the matter.
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The EC, however, doesn’t have a time constraint as it doesn’t have to expedite its preparatory works for the previously announced April-May midterm polls. The tasks related to the fresh polls have been postponed at least for now following the verdict of the Supreme Court (SC) on February 23, overturning the government’s December 20 decision to dissolve the House of Representatives (HoR).
According to spokesperson for the commission, Raj Kumar Shrestha, they have been ‘minutely studying’ and ‘holding consultations’ on the applications filed by the two factions of the NCP --- one led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and the other by leaders duo Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal. Both factions have claimed their legitimacy over the name and election symbol of the party.
The poll body, however, refused to grant legitimacy to either of the factions as they failed to follow the Political Parties Act-2017 and the party statute, on January 25 earlier this year. A meeting of the EC's office-bearers concluded that both factions of the NCP failed to follow the Political Parties Act-2017 and the party statute.
