Kathmandu, August 17
The meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday has endorsed an ordinance that now makes it easier for political leaders to split a political party.
A source told Onlinekhabar that the Council of Ministers have decided to amend the Political Parties Act, 2002, through which a party can split from another if it has 20 per cent members in the party’s central or parliamentary committee. When the Act was originally drafted, it did not mention a set percentage.
With this ordinance, it will now be easier for CPN-UML’s Madhav Kumar Nepal and Janata Samajwadi Pary’s Mahanta Thakur to split from their respective parties.
A similar ordinance was put forward by KP Sharma Oli in April 2020, where he had amended the Act where a part could be split if it had 40 per cent support from either the central committee or the parliamentary party. However, after widespread criticism, Oli took the ordinance back.
CPN-UML, on the other hand, has warned that it will retaliate if such an ordinance is passed. The party’s spokesperson Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said that the government will be responsible for what is to come if such an ordinance is passed.
“We will protest because this will bring more instability,” he said.
