Despite the reluctance of the top leadership, CPN (Maoist Centre) representatives in the ongoing statute convention have demanded direct elections to pick the party leadership right from the local committees.

Presenting reports on the draft statute of the party, most of the group leaders recommended changes in the practice of selecting the leadership. At present, the party’s general convention only elects central committee members. The members of other committees and office bearers get nominated from among the central committee members.

On Wednesday afternoon, the group leaders started presenting the conclusions from the respective committees. As many as 1,300 representatives of the third largest party are discussing the draft statute in the three-day jamboree that started on Tuesday. The representatives have been divided into 20 groups each comprising around 55 to 60 representatives. The leaders from the 13 groups presented their conclusion on Wednesday.

“There is a strong voice to adopt direct elections at all levels. The party will reach a conclusion after listening to the remaining seven committees,” said Maheshwor Jung Gahatraj, one of the team leaders.

The party chairperson and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Tuesday presented the draft statute for discussion and feedback. The draft dossier, prepared by a committee led by the party’s vice-chairperson Pampha Bhusal, couldn’t be a unanimous document following the differences among the leaders over the leadership selection process. The party’s top order, including Dahal, is for allowing the central committee to nominate the party leadership.

The second rung, however, wants all the positions to be elected directly by the general convention. Janardan Sharma, a deputy general secretary, has presented a separate proposal at the convention which envisions changing the party's name in addition to conducting direct elections for all party positions and imposing term and age caps.

Ranjeet Tamang, another group leader, said some of the groups recommended curbing the size of party committees, changing the name and electoral symbol and adopting direct elections at all levels. He had recommended endorsing the statute and bringing it into force immediately.

Most of the committees had similar recommendations. Yubraj Chaulagain, another group leader, said there was a strong voice for imposing an age limit for active politics. "Renaming the party as CPN (Socialist), choosing office bearers through direct elections and imposing three terms for a leader to hold government positions are other suggestions from our group.”

The draft statute proposes downsizing the central committee to 151 from the existing one, which exceeds 600 members. Most of the representatives welcomed the provision and suggested further cuts in the number if possible. The statute under consideration envisions the politburo reduced to a third of the central committee while the Standing Committee would be a third of the politburo. However, some of the leaders have suggested scrapping the Standing Committee to remove a layer in the party structure.

As per the draft statute, the chairperson would be the party supremo, but the Maoist Centre will also follow the principle of collective leadership. It envisions a senior vice-chair, vice-chair, general secretary, deputy general secretary, secretary and treasurer. However, it doesn’t specify their numbers. Led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the party currently has 15 office bearers.

If the statute gets endorsed, all party committees will have 49 percent representation of the marginalised and underprivileged communities. There is 45 percent reservation for such groups in the constitution.

The draft statute envisions 35 percent women’s representation in all party structures. Similarly, only those who have been with the party for 10 years can be general convention representatives.

The provincial committees will be 125-strong with nine office bearers while the district committees can have up to 99 members.

As the Maoist Centre general convention held in December 2021 was solely focused on selecting the party leadership, there was an agreement among the leaders to hold a separate convention to discuss and endorse the party statute.

The main opposition CPN-UML in October 2021 had finalised its statute through a special convention and the general convention was held next month to elect the party leadership. The Maoist Centre has become the second party to embrace the practice. Voices are being raised in the Nepali Congress also for a separate statute convention, saying the electing party leadership becomes the entire focus of the general convention with little focus on discussing the party policies.

Ganesh Shah, the party secretary, said the feedback was encouraging. “The convention will endorse the statute on Thursday once all the committees complete presenting their reports,” he said.