Nepali Congress leadership election puts powerful ‘General Secretary’ post in focus

KATHMANDU: The closed session of the fifteenth General Convention of the Nepali Congress has ended. After the closed session ended on Wednesday afternoon, the process of the General Convention has moved toward the selection of office bearers.

According to the Election Committee, preparation for publishing the final list of candidacies and General Convention delegates is ongoing. According to Coordinator Prem Bahadur Khadka, voting will begin at 10 AM on Thursday, which is tomorrow after the publication of the final list. “The work of withdrawing candidacies is ongoing; 125 complaints have been registered regarding candidacies,” he says, “After all this investigation is completed, the list will be published.” The publicity committee has stated that 7255 General Convention delegates participated in the fifteenth General Convention.

This time, the closed session of the General Convention has increased the number of office bearers. According to which, one post of Senior Vice President has been created. The number of vice presidents has been increased from two to three persons, and from two general secretaries to three general secretary posts. Provisions have been made to have one woman each among the three vice presidents and general secretaries.

Similarly, the number of eight Joint General Secretaries has been increased to fifteen persons. Out of which 11 will be elected and four nominated. One treasurer and 66 persons will be nominated by the president. Congress has this time increased the size of the Central Working Committee to 297. In the fourteenth General Convention, there was a 168-member Central Working Committee.

Powerful general secretary

In the organizational structure of the Nepali Congress, the main post to exercise executive power after the president is the general secretary. In order of precedence, vice presidents come after the president. This time, Congress has created the post of senior vice president. After this, a provision has been made for three vice presidents.

Even though the senior vice president and three vice presidents remain in precedence, the post of general secretary is the most powerful in party operation, administrative leadership, and organizational structure.

According to the statute of the Nepali Congress, general secretaries are the chief administrative officers of the party. The central office and daily administrative operations remain under them. The General Secretary holds the sole authority to issue official circulars implementing the decisions of the Central Committee, General Convention, or General Committee.