The ruling CPN-UML has begun preparations for its second National Statute Convention with the party’s Secretariat meeting on Wednesday deciding to hold the Statute Convention in September first week.

A UML leader said that the meeting assigned responsibilities to three leaders, including party chair KP Sharma Oli, to expedite the preparations for the convention.

The meeting entrusted Oli with the task of presenting the political report, Vice-chair Bishnu Poudel with drafting the statute amendment proposal, and General Secretary Shankar Pokharel with preparing the organisational proposal.

The issue of age limit for office bearers is taken as a major agenda to be decided by the convention.

Party secretary Padma Aryal stated that a report will be submitted to the secretariat incorporating the suggestions from the lower committees ahead of the statute convention and a decision will be made accordingly.

“Today’s meeting did not hold a detailed discussion on the age issue. However, there was consensus that a decision on the matter will be reached based on the suggestions from the party’s lower committees before the statute convention,” Aryal told the Post.

Amid speculations within the UML regarding the 70-year age bar, Deputy General Secretary Pradeep Gyawali said that the matter will be settled by the statute convention.

“There is no need to take it as a theoretical issue,” Gyawali said during a press briefing held at the party’s central office in Chyasal, Lalitpur.

The party’s ninth general convention, held in Kathmandu in July 2014, adopted a 70-year limit for leaders to hold any executive position in the party. As a result, some senior leaders, including Bharat Mohan Adhikari and Siddi Lal Singh, were sidelined from executive roles.

Oli was about to turn 70 during the 10th general convention. To avoid any bar for him, the party's statute convention in 2021 introduced a provision that individuals over the age of 70 would not be eligible to hold executive positions. However, in recent times, as Oli began to claim that the age limit was irrelevant, some party leaders had expressed their displeasure at such remarks.

The UML removed the age limit in June 2023, making septuagenarian party chair Oli, among other top leaders, eligible to hold the top position yet again. The party removed the age limit citing the need to allow senior leaders including Mukunda Neupane who had joined the CPN (Unified Socialist) in 2021 to return to the UML.

Oli will also be ineligible to contest the top position if the party adopts the two-term policy instead of enforcing the age limit. He was elected the party chair through the 9th and 10th general conventions.

If the party continues the age limit, Vice-chairpersons Ishwar Pokhrel, Asta Laxmi Shakya, Yubaraj Gyawali and Ram Bahadur Thapa will disqualify to hold an office-bearer position in the party.

The secretariat meeting on Wednesday lifted the suspension of Standing Committee member Binda Pandey and Central Committee member Ushakiran Timalsina. Deputy General Secretary Gyawali said that the secretariat had decided to lift their suspension.

The UML had taken action against them after they publicly criticised the party’s decision to build the party’s head office with financial support from Min Bahadur Gurung, owner of Bhatbhateni Supermarket.