KATHMANDU, Jan. 25: The CPN-UML has completed the election of the representatives for the 7th General Convention of the party amidst debates on whether the party should adopt presidential system or continue with the present general secretary system.

A total of 1,006 delegates will participate in the convention to be held in Jankapur on February 1.
The preparations for the convention are at the final stage, Ishor Pokharel, coordinator of the Convention Publicity Sub-Committee and a Standing Committee member, said at a press conference organised at party’s central office, Balkhu today.

Pokharel said that the convention would be held at the Rangbhumi (Barha Bigga) while its close sessions would be held at the premises of the Janakpur Cigarette Factory.

The convention will discuss key national agenda and will draw up guidelines for the party for the next five years, he said, adding the party will chalk out a new course after the convention.

On the debate on adopting the presidential system, Pokharel said that convention delegates would not be carried away by this issue. “This is a non-issue and an inopportune one at the moment when the country is passing through critical phase,” Pokharel said.

The party functionaries will be engaged in internal democratic exercises and stand for a unified party, he said.

The issue of presidential system has been raised by K.P. Sharma Oli, who has challenged incumbent general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal for the party leadership. Oli claims that restoring the post of president and making it the top authority would make the party truly democratic.

Oli has vowed that he would raise the issue of presidential system in the party’s national gathering.
The post of party president that has been lying vacant since the demise of Manmohan Adhikary, and the party’s central committee has decided to scrap it.

Representatives from communist parties of India, Bharatiya Janata Party and communist parties from China, Vietnam, and Korea will take part in the convention.

Pokharel said that the party has also received greetings from the communist parties of the Russian Federation, the United States, Slovakia, The Philippines, Hungary, Germany, Brazil, Norway, Israel, Sweden, Pakistan, and Finland for the success of its convention.

The convention will be participated by 700 delegates elected from geographical areas, 14 from the central department, 16 from zonal coordination committees, 35 from sister organisations, 47 from different fractions, 14 from its sister organisations outside the country, 155 from among women, 70 from worker’s elected from specific electoral areas. The organisers and ex-officio members of the convention would automatically take part the convention.

Likewise, there will be 113 of the erstwhile central committee members of CPN-ML, but were not nominated to UML’s central committee when the two parties united.

The 34th central committee meeting of the party that precedes the convention will nominate 48 more convention delegates. The central committee meeting will be held in Janakpur on January 30.