New bill requires support of 40% in central committee and parliamentary party to split party

KATHMANDU: The government is reviving a provision that requires the signatures of 40% of the parliamentary party and central committee members for the division of political parties.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, registered a Bill to Amend the Political Parties Act, 2016, in the Federal Parliament Secretariat on February 1.

“If at least 40% of both the central committee and parliamentary party members of a political party form a new political party or join another political party, the members of such a parliamentary party shall not be considered to have left the party,” a new provision included in the amendment bill reads.

Former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had introduced an ordinance three years ago to facilitate the split of a political party. As per the provision, anybody could split the party by securing the support of 40% of the central committee members or parliamentary party members. However, the allowance was withdrawn following widespread criticisms.

The government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba brought an even easier provision for splitting a party two years ago. According to the ordinance issued by the Deuba-led government, anybody could split the party by securing the support of 20% of the central committee or parliamentary party. Based on this, a faction of CPN-UML led by Madhav Kumar Nepal left the party to form CPN (Unified Socialist). The ordinance also facilitated Mahantha Thakur to split from Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) to form Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (JSP).

Interestingly, the ordinance was scrapped when the two new parties were formally registered with the Election Commission (EC). Since the government has not brought a replacement, there is confusion over provisions related to the split of political parties.