Nepal, Dec. 19 -- Incumbent chair of the CPN-UML, KP Sharma Oli, secured a landslide re-election victory through the party's 11th general convention, which concluded on Thursday. Most of the office bearers elected belong to the Oli panel, with only Gokarna Bista (vice-chair) and Yogesh Bhattarai (deputy general secretary) elected from the dissident panel led by Ishwar Pokhrel. Once again, Oli reigns supreme in the party after 12 years since his first election as party chair. Well, the widespread call for generational power transfer has clearly failed to reach the ears of most of the convention delegates who voted on Wednesday.

In this dark new cloud hovering over the UML, there are also some silver linings, though. First, the convention ...