Deposed Nepal PM seeks third term to lead CPN-UML, voting held

Nepal’s CPN-UML on Wednesday voted to elect its leader with deposed prime minister KP Sharma Oli facing a tough challenge from senior leader Ishwor Pokharel to retain the position he has held for over 10 years.

Oli, who is seeking a third consecutive term, and Pokharel are the only two candidates for the post of chairperson of the Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) in the contest that is being held three months after Oli’s government was forced to resign following a student-led protest.

Pokharel, 71, is giving Oli, 73, a tough fight after receiving the backing of former President Bidya Devi Bhandari, his rival in the presidential election. Voting began in the morning at the 11th General Convention at Kathmandu’s Bhrikutimandap and will continue till midnight, party sources said, adding, the results will be announced soon after the voting concludes.

“The voting began at 9 am after candidates, Oli and Pokharel, cast their votes using electronic voting machines. In total, 2,263 general convention representatives are exercising their voting rights,” said a party official. The election was earlier supposed to be held on Tuesday, but due to a technical problem, it was delayed by 24 hours. Observers are keenly watching the UML election this time as it is happening shortly after Oli’s ouster from power following the Gen Z movement.

“The main concern is whether the UML representatives will endorse the massacre committed under the leadership of Oli to suppress the Gen Z protests by re-electing Oli as the president or choosing his alternative,” said a party leader, who declined to be identified. Oli has been in the top post of the party for more than a decade. He got elected to the party’s chair during the 9th and the 10 convention with a comfortable majority, but this time the contest will be tough for him, party insiders said.

Oli’s rival candidate for party president, Pokharel, said that Oli, as the head of the then Government, must take at least moral responsibility for the killings, and should appear before the probe commission investigating the matter, if summoned. Oli has categorically ruled out that possibility. At least 77 people were killed during September’s Gen Z led protests, which also caused physical damage amounting to NRs 84.45 billion, a government committee tasked with assessing the damage to life and public and private property said on December 11.

In the past five-year period, following the 10th general convention, Oli has sidelined all of his opponents, including Madhav Kumar Nepal, Bhim Rawal, Jhalanath Khanal, Ghanashyam Bhushal and Bamdev Gautam, who challenged his hegemony in the party. Most of them have lately chosen Pushpakamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ to lead the new party, Nepali Communist Party.

In a public meeting organised by CPN-UML at Sallaghari in Bhaktapur district on Saturday, Oli sought the support of his colleagues for the third consecutive term, saying the party is facing a serious crisis after the Gen Z movement toppled the UML-led government in September. Sources said, following the Gen Z movement, voices have grown stronger within the party for a change in the top leadership and for greater representation of youth in key positions, including the central committee.