UML removes 70-year limit for leadership

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Sept. 8: The second statute convention of the ruling CPN-UML has unanimously endorsed all reports presented during the session, including the statute amendment report. 

The statute convention that kicked off at Godavari, Lalitpur on Friday concluded on Sunday by unanimously endorsing four reports from the central bodies, along with three main proposals, said chief of UML publicity department Rajendra Gautam.

During the convention, Prime Minister and Party Chairman KP Sharma Oli had tabled political report, vice-chair Bishnu Prasad Paudel had presented statute amendment report and general secretary Shankar Pokharel had presented organisational report. 

To deliberate on these reports, 10 groups had been formed, and after group discussions, all team leaders presented suggestions from their respective groups on Sunday itself. 

Responding to the groups’ suggestions and queries, Chairman Oli clarified that the people’s multiparty democracy was the guiding principle to advance the country. 

He stated that by promoting people’s multiparty democracy as a principle, the party was moving toward laying the foundation for socialism. 

Chairman Oli also emphasised that by conveying the party’s policies and ideology to the people, the party can become a decisive national force.

Meanwhile, the convention also unanimously elected a 25-member Central Election Commission chaired by Dr. Bijay Subba. The convention also passed 29 contemporary proposals of national and international significance, presented by party secretary Yogesh Bhattarai on behalf of the draft committee for contemporary proposals. The approved proposals are as follows:

Key changes in new statute 

With the endorsement of the statute amendment proposal, significant changes have been made in UML’s organisational structure, office-bearer structure, membership, leadership authority, training, and age limits.

The UML will no longer have a 70-year age limit for leadership positions, so leaders can now serve for more than two terms. The party had already decided on these changes in the previous secretariat and central committee meeting. 

This change will allow Chairman Oli to run for a third term as party chairman. The provisions were not proposed separately in the convention. 

Similarly, UML will now have one chairperson, three vice-chairpersons, one general secretary, three deputy general secretaries and seven secretaries. The party agreed to remove the position of senior vice-chairperson, deputy general secretaries, and secretaries. 

At present, UML has one senior vice-chairperson, seven vice-chairpersons, three deputy general secretaries, and seven secretaries.

The provision for a senior vice-chairperson was introduced during the party’s first statute convention. Currently, senior party leader Ishwar Pokharel holds this position. 

Likewise, the party will now have 251-member central committee, down from 301. The party will also have three tiers of structures, the politburo, the standing committee and the central committee. The party secretariat has been removed. Similarly, the party standing committee will consist of 15 members and the politburo will have 99 members. Earlier, the party standing committee had 45 members. 

The UML statute also categorizes party members into two types, general members and organized members. The party has mandated that all members or candidates of office bearers in any committee must have participated in the training programmes organised by the school department of the higher committee.

As per the statute, the central committee must hold meeting every six months, the provincial committee every four months, the district committee every three months, the municipal committee every two months, and the ward committee every month.