ELECTION TRAIL

NEPAL PLAYS AFGHANISTAN IN SOUTH ASIAN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Kathmandu, 22 July: Nepal plays Afghanistan in Group A match in

the Second SAFF U-16 Championship in the Nepalese capital Monday.

A win will ensure the home team a semifinal berth.

Nepal trounced Bhutan 7-0 in its inaugural match.

Seven nations are participating in thee seven-nation South Asian football tournament; Maldives is not participating.

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CAPITAL MORNING TEMPERATURE 21 DEGREES CELSIUS

Kathmandu, 22 July: Monday morning’s temperature on a rinymorning was 21 degrees Celsius at seven.

Mercury is expected to rise to 31 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.

Altogether 56.5mm rainfall was recorded Sunday.

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	UCPN MAOIST ON ELECTION TRAIL Kathmandu, 22 July: By endorsing the political proposal of Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to adopt the model of leadership centered on the chairman and dissolve the office bearer positions, the UCPN (Maoist) has returned to its former structure after four years, kIran Pun writes in Republica.. The party´s plenum that concluded Sunday was unanimous in endorsing the proposal. Following the dissolution of office bearer positions, the erstwhile office bearers will now become central committee members. Although the authority is centered on chairman under the new model, Dahal has claimed that the new model is about running the party through collective leadership. Top leaders have also said that Dahal will not have the degree of authority that he exercised in the party during the insurgency time. The plenum decision is also a major departure from what was decided by the party general convention held in Hetauda in February. The general convention had elected only four office bearers including Dahal as chairman, Bhattarai and Narayan Kaji Shrestha as vice-chairmen, and Post Bahadur Bogati as general secretary, and decided to form a 151-member central committee. However only 98-member committee was formed. After many attempts to give full shape to the party organization, Dahal a few weeks ago had proposed to form a 399-member CC with 9 office bearers, a 17-member standing committee, and a 51-member politburo. But the CC rejected Dahal´s proposal and Bhattarai resigned from the post of vice-chairman his post prompting Dahal to call plenum. Four years ago, the party had endorsed a collective leadership model nominating Dahal as chairman, Mohan Baidya, Bhattarai and Shrestha as vice-chairmen; Ram Bahadur Thapa as general secretary; and C P Gajurel and Post Bahadur Bogati as secretaries. Dahal clamed the model is collective leadership Replying to the questions of participants Sunday, Dahal claimed that the party will be run through collective leadership under the new model. He also said that a secretariat will be formed soon. "My position does not have authority. It is basically a collective leadership model," said Suk Bahadur Roka Magar, CC member, quoting Dahal. He also informed that a CC meeting has been called for August 27 and it will form a secretariat. According to highly-placed party sources, the same 17 names that were earlier proposed by Dahal for the standing committee will be nominated in the secretariat. Bhattarai will play executive role as CC member Although Bhattarai while resigning as vice-chairman had declared that he would not hold executive position anymore, he will now be active as a CC member as per the decision of the plenum. Plenum representatives had termed Bhattarai´s resignation decision as out of context and harmful for the party. "The plenum rejected the Bhattarai´s resignation and he will work as the party CC member," said Roka Magar. Month-long election campaign The Maoist party has also decided to hold a month long election campaign to study the party´s hold at the grassroots level. The party has deputed one CC member each in 240 electoral constituencies for the purpose.

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NOMINATIONS TO POLITBURO OF UML REJECTED

Kathmandu, 22 July: CPN-UML standing committee´s proposal to promote six leaders to politburo was rejected at the party´s Central Committee (CC) meeting on Sunday as several other members staked claim to the same position., Thira

Lal Bhusal writes in Republica.t

The party´s top leaders at a standing committee meeting had decided to promote Subas Nembang, Bhim Rawal, Dharmanath Prasad Sah, Kiran Gurung, Radha Gyawali, Gorakh Bahadur Bogati and Krishna Gopal Shrestha to politburo and subsequently floated the same proposal at the CC meeting.
But, failing to get the proposal endorsed, the leaders eventually left the issued to be decided through next round of meeting.

The CC meeting, however, passed the proposal to nominate Ratneshwar Goit, who recently joined UML, as CC member. Former UML leader Goit had joined the Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party as assistant general secretary but returned to the UML earlier this month.”Other leaders did not oppose the proposed names but claimed that there are some other members who must not be excluded,” a participant at the meeting told Republica requesting anonymity.

Other names proposed by the members were Beduram Bhusal, Naresh Kharel, Khagraj Adhikari, Ganesh Timilsena, Raghubir Mahaseth and Yogesh Bhattarai, among others. Also, Jagannath Khatiwada proposed his candidacy for the post of alternative politburo member.

During the discussion, some leaders also suggested to the party leadership to expand the standing committee and to make the top body inclusive. Keshav Devkota proposed nominating Nembang to the post of vice-chairperson that has remained vacant since the erstwhile vice-chairperson Ashok Rai quit the party. He also suggested to the leadership to nominate Dharmanath Prasad Sah and Chhavilal Bishwakarma as standing committee members. Jitu Gautam and Keshav Badal seconded Devkota´s proposal.

But this proposal also couldn´t be endorsed as other members argued that some leaders, including Mukunda Neupane, Pradeep Nepal, Keshav Badal and Asta Laxmi Shakya also deserved the position.

"UML to win 106 seats"

UML secretary Shankar Pokharel, on behalf of the party´s secretariat, presented the report of the nationwide election survey conducted by the party.
According to the finding, the UML will emerge as the largest party by winning at least 106 seats under the first-past-the-post electoral system in the coming elections.

“This is a preliminary survey and we will further verify and follow up after the election commission brings out the voters list with photographs,” said CC member Khatiwada. “This time around, UML´s position in the grassroots is quite encouraging because our local bodies are actively working in villages across the country.