Voting for the leadership of the CPN-UML will begin at 1pm on Tuesday as part of the party’s 11th general convention at Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu.

Polling is scheduled to run until 7pm, with 80 electronic voting machines in use, although 100 were brought to the venue.

Party’s election commission chair Bijaya Subba said each delegate may take 25 to 30 minutes to cast their vote. Altogether, 2,263 delegates will elect 301 leadership positions, including office bearers and central committee members selected from various clusters, including women, indigenous groups, and Dalits.

UML chair KP Sharma Oli and senior vice-chair Ishwar Pokhrel have filed rival panel-based candidacies for the top post. Nominations were registered on Monday during the convention’s closed session.

The election comes amid significant internal turbulence within Oli’s camp. Despite expanding office-bearer positions from 15 to 19, several senior leaders in the Oli faction have expressed dissatisfaction over repeated nominations and exclusion from key posts. The decision to field Shankar Pokhrel again for general secretary triggered frustration among Oli loyalists, including Pradeep Gyawali and Bishnu Poudel, with some choosing to contest other posts or shifting allegiance to the Pokhrel camp.

Pokhrel’s faction, by contrast, has introduced fresh faces for leadership roles and reported little internal dissent. Backed by former President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Pokhrel has said his candidacy aims to promote collective leadership and rules-based decision-making within the party.

Senior figures like Bhim Acharya and Lalbabu Pandit, who were initially in Oli’s panel but dissatisfied with offered positions, have filed for vice-chair and party secretary posts respectively. Other leaders, including Agni Kharel, Krishna Gopal Shrestha, Sher Bahadur Tamang, and Jwala Kumari Sah, have also publicly expressed displeasure over being overlooked.