The chairperson of CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli has filed two writ petitions at the Supreme Court, challenging the registration of Madhav Kumar Nepal-led CPN (Unified Socialist). The first hearing of the case has been listed on Friday by the Supreme Court.
The petition was filed by Sumitra Pandey on behalf of Oli against the Office of the Prime Minister, Election Commission and House of Representatives Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota.
Arguing that the new party was formed with the support of 14 lawmakers who had already been expelled from his party, Oli has urged the court to nullify the registration of CPN (US) and has also demanded that the SC issue an interim order barring the CPN(US) from carrying out activities as an individual political party.
Oli also expressed that the EC registered the CPN (US) counting the 14 lawmakers who had been expelled.
Former attorney general Agni Prasad Kharel said that out of 58 CPN-UML Central Committee members who had supported the petition to split the party, seven had not signed the petition and yet the EC allowed them to verify their signatures.
“Verification of a persons’ signature can happen only when somebody has signed the original petition, but seven Central Committee members had not signed the original petition.”
Kharel said the prevailing laws did not allow the EC to verify signatures of Jhalanath Khanal from abroad.
CPN-UML has said that Speaker Sapkota made a mistake by not issuing a notice confirming the expulsion of 14 lawmakers although the party had expelled them.
