Kathmandu : Madhav Kumar Nepal-led UML Socialist and Mahanta Thakur-led JSP (Democratic) have paved the way for registration. The way for party registration has been opened after the Election Commission amended the rules as per the ordinance on party division brought by the government. Earlier, an application was filed with the Election Commission for registration of two parties on Wednesday due to lack of regulations, but the process could not proceed.

The Election Commission has published the revised rules in the Gazette on Thursday evening with a plan to expedite the process of party registration. Commission sources say that now that the rules have been amended, both the parties have to re-apply. After completing all the procedures and submitting the application, the commission will reach a decision within two weeks at most.

For party registration, the decision made by the Central Committee, party constitution, manifesto, election symbol, signature of 20 percent members of the Central Committee or the parliamentary party, citizenship or identity documents should be submitted to the Commission. The commission said that the parties that filed the petition on Wednesday have not completed the process and should file the petition again.
After the ordinance brought by the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government was issued by President Bidyadevi Bhandari on Wednesday, Madhav Nepal and Mahanta Thakur went to the Election Commission to register separate parties.
The ordinance stipulates that for the registration of a new party, the Central Committee or the parliamentary party must have 20 percent members.

Similarly, the people’s representatives at the provincial and local levels have not left the old party and joined the divided party within 21 days.