Kathmandu, Nepal: Three candidates have filed nominations for the presidency of the Nepali Congress at the party’s 15th General Convention, setting up a three-way contest for the top party post, subject to the completion of the election process.
Current party president Gagan Kumar Thapa, Shyam Krishna Khadgi and Kishor Singh Rathour registered their candidacies on Tuesday, according to the party’s election committee. Khadgi was the first of the three to register, followed by Thapa and Rathour.
The convention is being held in Kathmandu to elect a new Central Working Committee and office-bearers. Voting is scheduled for Thursday.
The nomination process has now been completed, but the number of candidates at each post should be understood as the figure recorded after nomination filing. The election process includes scrutiny of nominations and the opportunity for candidates to withdraw before the final list is published.
Four Vice-President Posts
The amended party structure provides for four vice presidents: one senior vice president, one woman vice president, one inclusive vice president and one open vice president. The party has expanded the number and categories of office-bearers as part of its revised organisational structure.
World Prakash Sharma has filed for senior vice president, while Pushpa Bhusal is the sole candidate for the women’s vice-president post based on the nominations registered so far.
Nine candidates have filed for the open vice-president post. They are Dr Chandra Bhandari, Devraj Chalise, Surendra Raj Pandey, Madhu Prasad Acharya, Dr Minendra Rijal, Dipak Giri, Dhanraj Gurung, Govinda Bhattarai and Dr Chandramohan Yadav.
Five candidates have registered for the inclusive vice-president post: Binod Chaudhary, Farmullah Mansur, Jeevan Pariyar, Ranjit Karn and Sita Gurung.
The number of candidates in each category reflects the nominations registered on Tuesday. The final list will depend on the completion of the election committee’s procedures.
Eleven Candidates for Three General Secretary Posts
Eleven candidates have filed nominations for the three general secretary positions.
Eight candidates are contesting under the open category: Pradip Poudel, Gururaj Ghimire, Udaya Shumsher Rana, Amar Singh Pun, Nain Singh Mahar, Shankar Tiwari, Dr Sunil Sharma and Dr Santosh Upadhyay.
Three candidates have filed under the women’s category: Dr Dila Sangraula, Rita Khanal and Mahalakshmi Upadhyay, known as Dina Upadhyay.
Under the amended party structure, the Nepali Congress has three general secretary posts, including one reserved for women. Thus, if the nominations remain unchanged, eight candidates will compete for two open positions and three for the single women’s position.
Larger Central Working Committee
The 15th General Convention is taking place under an amended party structure. The Central Working Committee has been expanded from 167 members to 297, while the number of office-bearers has increased from 14 to 26.
The number of general secretaries has increased from two to three. The number of joint general secretaries has also been expanded, with the new structure providing 11 elected joint general secretary positions. A spokesperson position has also been added.
The expansion has resulted in a larger number of positions and, consequently, a wider field of candidates seeking different posts. However, the number of nominations alone does not indicate the likely outcome of the election.
Final Voter List Has 7,255 Delegates
The final voter list for the 15th General Convention contains 7,255 delegates, according to an official notice issued by the Nepali Congress Central Election Committee.
The committee had initially published a list of 7,114 voters. After examining claims and objections to that preliminary list, it published the final list containing 7,255 delegates. The final list was issued on Tuesday.
The increase of 141 delegates should therefore not be described as a new group of voters added after the nomination process. They were included as part of the process of finalising the voter list after claims and objections.
The 14th General Convention had 4,743 voting delegates. The electorate for the current convention is therefore substantially larger than that of the previous convention.
The final voter list is important because only those included in it are eligible to participate in the election of the new Central Working Committee.
Election Process Moves to Final Stage
The nomination process is only one stage of the internal election. After nominations are registered, the election committee must complete scrutiny and related procedures before the final list of candidates is established.
The party’s election committee had earlier scheduled the publication of the preliminary voter list, the filing of claims and objections, examination of those objections and publication of the final voter list as separate stages of the election process. The committee has now published the final voter list after completing that process.
The current nomination figures therefore provide a picture of the contest following Tuesday’s filing. They do not, by themselves, establish the final result or indicate which candidate has the support required to win.
With three candidates registered for president and multiple candidates competing for the vice-president and general secretary positions, the convention will determine the composition of the Nepali Congress’s next Central Working Committee.
Voting is scheduled for Thursday, after which the results will determine the party’s new leadership.
