Kathmandu, February 2
The government has introduced a bill to amend the Political Parties Act of 2017 in the Federal Parliament.
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha registered the bill in the House of Representatives on Thursday. The bill repeals the ordinance and reintroduces the previous provisions of the Act.
In accordance with the political parties’ provisions in Part 29 of the Constitution of Nepal, the Political Parties (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 changed certain sections of the Political Parties Act of 2017. However, since then President Bidya Devi Bhandari repealed that ordinance on September 27, 2021, an amendment bill has been proposed to restore the original provisions of the Act by undoing the legal changes introduced by the repealed ordinance.
The bill specifies that, following the repeal of the ordinance concerning subsection 2 of section 33 and subsection 1 of section 48 of the Act, the previous situation will be reinstated.
The amendment in question is connected to the provision in the Act, which states that if at least 40 per cent of the members of the parliamentary party of the federal parliament create a new party or join another party, or if such members establish a new party, they shall not be considered to have left the original party. The recent government introduced an ordinance related to this provision, allowing the formation of a newly registered party by retaining 20 per cent or more members of the central committee or 20 per cent or more members of the parliamentary party of the federal parliament of such party at the time of registration.
