Nepali Congress Mahasamiti meeting has concluded in Kathmandu Wednesday evening approving a statute that largely limits the authority of party president .

The Mahasamiti has decided to elect about 75 percent of the 85-member Central Working Committee (CWC) from general convention.

Informing journalists about the provisions on the amended statute NC leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula said, 61 CWC members will be elected by the general convention with 25 from open contest, one each from 14 zones, and 22 from reserved quotas. In the reserved quota, six seats has been allocated for women, five for Dalits, five for ethnic communities, five for Madhesis and one for Muslim.

Likewise, the general convention will directly elect the president, a general secretary and a treasurer.

The party president will have the authority to propose to the elected CWC 21 members and three officials.

The president will propose candidates for the position of a vice president, a general secretary and a deputy general secretary from among the elected CWC members, and the elected CWC members will approve the nominations.

Likewise, the president will propose 21 CWC members with at least one representative each from women, Dalit, Madhesi, Muslim and ethnic communities to the elected CWC.

In the present statute, the president has the authority to nominate 50 percent of the CWC members and all officials.

 According to the amended statute, the Mahasamiti will now have five elected members with at least one woman from each constituency. The general convention will have 12 elected representatives from each constituency.

The amended statute will be tabled at the general convention of the party to be organised after some months for final approval.

This is the first time NC has scrapped the presidential system it had been following since over half a century. Party president Girija Prasad Koirala had strived not to change the leadership model till the last moment.

He had urged the Mahasamiti members not to scrap the presidential system as it was the very identity of the party during his inaugural speech of the Mahasamiti meeting. Earlier, Koirala had strongly opposed the idea of calling the Mahasamiti meeting itself.

The approved statute draft is not one of the three options proposed by the drafts committee led by Sitaula. A new draft was proposed to find a middle path among the Mahasamiti members.

Most of the Mahasamiti members had spoken for the option with a provision to elect 80 percent of the CWC members and all the officials directly from the general convention. The adjustment was made to accommodate the views of leaders including and supporting acting president Sushil Koirala.

NC leaders Sher Bahadur Deuba, Sushil Koirala and Krishna Sitaula had shuttled between the Mahasamiti venue in Kamaladi and Koirala’s residence in Maharajgunj, Wednesday, to finalise the draft after Mahasamiti members asked the leaders to come up with a new proposal. nepalnews.com

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