Government Withdraws Bill to Amend Political Parties Act, Citing Procedural Flexibility

The government has withdrawn the bill to amend the Political Parties Act, as confirmed by a letter received by the parliament secretariat.

Legally, the government can withdraw a bill at any time. This particular bill aimed to revert to the previous system requiring 40 percent support from both the central committee and the parliamentary party for a party division. In 2077 BS, then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli introduced an ordinance amending the Political Parties Act, which lowered the requirement to 40 percent support from either the Central Committee or the Parliamentary Party. This ordinance, intended to split the then Rastriya Janata Party (RJP) and the Sanghiya Samajwadi Party, faced widespread criticism and was eventually withdrawn by Oli.

Subsequently, under Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, President Bidya Devi Bhandari issued an ordinance reducing the required support to 20 percent. This change facilitated the formation of new parties, such as the Madhav Nepal faction of the UML and the Mahantha Thakur faction of the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP).

Once the CPN (Unified Socialist) Party led by Madhav Nepal and the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP) led by Mahantha Thakur were registered with the Election Commission, the ordinance was revoked.

With the ordinance becoming ineffective due to the absence of a replacement bill, the current government introduced an amendment bill in parliament to restore the previous requirement of 40 percent support from both the central committee and the parliamentary party. Despite appearing on the daily agenda multiple times, the bill was never submitted for discussion. It was scheduled for discussion on Thursday, but the House session was disrupted by the obstruction from the Nepali Congress.