KATHMANDU, Jan 29: Leaders of the Oli-led faction of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) on Friday urged the Election Commission (EC) to start the process for registering political parties for the upcoming midterm elections.

In a meeting with EC officials, NCP's Oli-led faction leaders including Bishnu Poudel and Subhash Chandra Nembang said that the process for registering political parties for the midterm elections can be taken forward as the Supreme Court has not issued an interim order on the dissolution of the House of Representatives.

"We asked the commission to take forward due process for midterm elections and expressed our support to the commission for the same. The commission officials also said that they are committed to holding the elections on the scheduled dates if the ongoing preparations for elections are not halted due to the Supreme Court's order in the coming days," NCP leader Nembang told reporters on the premises of the commission while emerging from the meeting.

Responding to a media query, Nembang claimed that the EC has already finalized the issue of granting official recognition to either faction of the NCP. "The EC has already made its decision regarding granting official recognition to either factions of the NCP. We are moving ahead for the party registration, accordingly. However, some friends [Dahal-Nepal faction of the NCP] still believe that they are the legitimate NCP," he said.

Meanwhile, NCP's Dahal-Nepal faction did not take part in today's meeting with EC officials citing the busy schedule of their chairpersons Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal.

Leaders of the Dahal-Nepal faction, Rajendra Pandey, Lilamani Pokharel and Mukti Pradhan reached the commission and submitted a letter to EC officials. In the letter, the Dahal-Nepal faction has sought more time saying that its chairpersons Dahal and Nepal are willing to join the meeting but they can't make it now as they are currently outside Kathmandu to attend the party's pre-scheduled events.

In the letter, the Dahal-Nepal faction suggested to the EC to organize the meeting after coming Sunday. 

Both factions of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) were invited to the EC headquarters today for the same.

The EC, on Thursday, invited rival factions of NCP to hold discussions on its preparations for the upcoming midterm elections. The meeting was aimed at apprising the rival factions of the NCP of the preparations made so far by the EC about the midterm polls scheduled for April 30 and May 10.

Earlier, the EC had rejected the changes made by both factions of the NCP in the party committees. While the Dahal faction had ousted Oli from the party’s chairmanship and even stripped him of the party’s general membership, the Oli faction had inducted several hundred members into its central committee and inducted leaders into various other committees of the party.

 
• KP_Sharma_Oli
 
• NCP
 
• House_dissolution
 
• peaceful_politics