(1) Persons who are committed to common political ideology, philosophy and program may, subject to laws made under sub-clause

(c) of clause

(2) of Article 17, form and operate political parties, and generate, or cause to be generated, publicity in order to secure support and cooperation from the general public for their ideology, philosophy and program or carry out other necessary activity for this purpose.

(2) A political party formed in accordance with clause

(1) must register the party with the Election Commission upon fulfilment of the procedures established by law.

(3) A petition to be made for the purpose of registration of a party in accordance with clause

(2) must be accompanied by the constitution and manifesto of the concerned political party and such other documents as required by the Federal law.

(4) For a petition to be made for the registration of a party in accordance with clause

(2), the political party must fulfil the following conditions:

(a) its constitution and rules must be democratic,

(b) its constitution must provide for election of each of the office- bearers of the party at the Federal and State levels at least once in every five years; provided that nothing shall bar the making of provision by the constitution of a political party to hold such election within six months in the event of failure to hold election of its office- bearers within five years because of a special circumstance. 188

(c) there must be a provision of such inclusive representation in its executive committees at various levels as may be reflecting the diversity of Nepal.

(5) If the name, objective, insignia or flag of a political party is of such a nature as to jeopardize the religious and communal unity of the country or to fragment the country, that party shall not be registered.