The process began after a meeting of the party's Central Committee endorsed the proposal regarding the criteria for candidacy to the politburo submitted by a taskforce comprising party Vice Chairman Bhim Bahadur Rawal and General Secretary Ishwar Pokhrel. As per the proposal, a person who has remained as the central committee member for one term would be eligible for candidacy.

Although a meeting of the party office-bearers, before the meeting of the central committee, gave the responsibility to forge consensus on the issue to the party Chairman KP Oli and leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, they could not arrive at a consensus, leading to the starting of the election process, party's central election commission member Sanuraja Pokhrel, said.

He said the filing of nominations, claims and counter-claims on the nominations and publication of the final name list of candidates would be concluded and the election held today alone.

Central committee member Rajan Bhattarai said the election process has been adopted as the possibility of consensus was limited.

The party's Ninth National General Convention had proposed electing a 159-member central committee based on the principle of inclusion to lead the party. Senior leader Jhalnath Khanal and the presidents of the central disciplinary commission and the advisory council are the ex-officio members of the central committee. One-third members of the central committee would be elected to the politburo. Sixteen office-bearers of the politburo would be ex-officio members, 23 would be full members while 15 would be alternative members.

The standing committee would be formed after the election of the politburo. The central committee meeting will again be held on Saturday.