Valley
Dahal proposes downsizing Maoist Central Committee to 99-member
Concluding that the 4,000-strong General Convention Organising Committee (GCOC) was unproductive and led to poor results during the local level elections, CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has proposed limiting the number of members below 100 in the party’s central body.Tika R Pradhan
Concluding that the 4,000-strong General Convention Organising Committee (GCOC) was unproductive and led to poor results during the local level elections, CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has proposed limiting the number of members below 100 in the party’s central body.
On the last day of the extended secretariat meeting that started on Monday, Dahal proposed downsizing the existing jumbo GCOC to 99-member. The party headquarters would finalise the list of members by mid-September.
The decision would be endorsed through the meetings of the GCOC in the seven provinces. Dahal’s proposal comes after almost all the leaders including the district chiefs of the party blamed the enormous size of the GCOC for the Maoists’ poor showing in the local polls.
The size of the GCOC happened to swell from 699 when 10 Maoist forces merged to form the Maoist Centre on May 19 last year.
“It’s not possible to hold a general convention anytime soon but there is an urgent need to downsize the GCOC as the election knocks on the door,” Dahal told the meeting.
Responding to the concerns raised by party members, Dahal said his party would discuss with major parties about wholly adopting the proportional representation electoral system by dropping the costly first-past-the-post system as it had been out of common people’s reach.
“We’ll discuss the PR election issue with the parties. If they refuse, we’ll go for state funding for the poll expenses,” Dahal said.
Citing defects of the existing form of government, the former prime minister said the party would now lobby for directly elected executive president for the sake of political stability, development and national unity.