Political breakthrough likely in a day or two

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Arjun Bhandari
Kathmandu, December 9:

The Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist may announce a political breakthrough in a day or two on the issues of republic, electoral system, a new date for the constituent assembly election and restructuring of the government.

A meeting held among the three parties in the mo-rning and a bilateral meeting between the NC and the UML in the evening inched towards a cons-ensus on the maj-or political issues.

A 12-point draft worked out by the NC and the UML, based on the meeting with the Maoists in the morning, would be presented to the three-party meeting tomorrow, and other fringe parties would also be invited to discuss the draft before officially announcing an agreement. The parties have also agreed to discuss the draft within their respective parties before assembling for a joint meeting.

The meeting held in Lalitpur agreed that a new date of constituent assembly elections would be declared next week .

On the issue of republic, the parties agreed that the current parliament session would declare the country a republic subject to endorsement by the first meeting of the constituent assembly. This has been the NC’s stance.

But the big three parties are yet to reach an understanding on the issue of electoral system. Emerging from the bilateral meeting, UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal said the Maoists said they would settle for 80-20 ratio for proportional and first-past-the-post system, UML proposed for a 60-40 ratio. But the NC suck to its stand: a 50-50 ratio. “My impression is that the NC and the Maoists will show flexibility on their stances on electoral system,” said UML standing committee member Bharat Mohan Adhikari who was also present in the meeting with NC leaders.

The 12-point draft proposes, among other things, to form a high-level mechanism of top leaders of the three parties to decide on major issues on a consensus basis, provide monthly allowances to the Maoist combatants in the camps according to the previous agreements and forming of a monitoring body to look into the issue of management of the camps..

The Maoist will have to stop extortion and return seized property to the rightful owners.They will also not raise any fresh demands affecting the CA polls. The draft also proposes to share major ministerial portfolios among the three major parties.
The NC talks team sought a guarantee from the Maoists that the latter would not come up with any fresh demands once the new understanding was inked among the seven parties, NC spokesperson Arjun Narsingh KC, who also took part in the bilateral meeting, said.

Accord and discord

• The country to be declared a republic subject to endorsement by the first meeting of CA
• Major decisions to be taken by consensus
• A joint mechanism to be formed to monitor the Maoist camps
• Maoists want 80-20 ratio on PR and FPTP
• UML wants 60-40 ration on PR and FPTP
• NC: 50-50 ratio on PR and FPTP