While the Nepali Congress establishment faction is moving ahead with the selection of delegates for the party’s general convention, the faction led by former president Sher Bahadur Deuba is set to begin a parallel convention process on Thursday.

The Deuba faction plans to hold ward-level conventions across the country on Thursday to elect ward committees and regional convention representatives.

Deepak Kuikel, coordinator of the Deuba faction’s convention organising committee, said election officers had been appointed in all districts and that ward conventions would be held nationwide on Thursday.

In districts where the district party president has declined to conduct the convention, separate coordinators have been appointed to oversee the elections, Kuikel said. In places where there is no ward president, another person has been assigned responsibility for conducting the convention, he added.

The number of regional representatives elected from each ward will depend on its number of active party members, ranging from a minimum of 21 to a maximum of 75.

A ward with 150 active members will elect 21 regional representatives, while a ward with more than 650 active members will elect up to 75 representatives.

Among the regional representatives, between two and six must be young people aged 18 to 28. The arrangements also provide for between three and 12 women representatives, depending on the size of the delegation.

Representation has also been reserved for people with disabilities, subject specialists, workers, veterans of the democratic movement, the injured, conflict victims and families of martyrs.

The Deuba faction had earlier submitted to the election committee a list of 783,836 active members for the ward conventions. The list includes 573,269 renewed memberships and 210,567 new memberships.

Each ward committee will have seven elected office-bearers: one president, two vice-presidents, two secretaries and two joint secretaries. The treasurer will be nominated by the ward president and endorsed by the ward committee. The number of other ward committee members will vary according to the type of local government ward.

A ward in a rural municipality will elect 15 members—three women, six under the open category and six under inclusive categories.

A ward in a municipality will elect 20 members—four women, eight under the open category and eight under inclusive categories.

A ward in a sub-metropolitan city will elect 25 members—five women, 10 under the open category and 10 under inclusive categories.

A ward in a metropolitan city will elect 30 members—six women, 12 under the open category and 12 under inclusive categories.

The ward committees must also include at least one young woman and one young man aged 18 to 28, as well as at least one woman and one man below the age of 40.

The Deuba faction has scheduled rural and urban municipality conventions for October 6, followed by provincial assembly constituency conventions on October 9, district conventions on November 1 and provincial conventions on November 20.

Its central general convention is scheduled to take place in Kathmandu from December 7 to 9.

Meanwhile, the establishment faction is set to begin its own central general convention at the Open Theatre in Kathmandu from Sunday.