SPA leaders agree to hold CA polls by mid-April 2008

Kantipur Report
http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?nid=131364

KATHMANDU, Dec 15 - The top leaders of the Seven Party-Alliance (SPA) have agreed to hold the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections by the end of the current Nepali year i.e. mid-April, 2008.
However, the leaders have not fixed a new date for the elections yet.

Following the decision of the SPA leaders Saturday evening, a meeting of the cabinet prepared a bill to amend the interim constitution accordingly.

Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel then tabled the bill in the interim parliament later in the evening.

The House has been adjourned till 2:00 pm Sunday. The debate on the bill will start tomorrow.

The leaders were also under pressure to forge an agreement by this evening so that a bill to amend the interim constitution could be tabled in the interim parliament before the deadline expires today, triggering a constitutional crisis.

As per the interim constitution, the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections were supposed to be announced by December 15 and many argue that there will be a constitutional crisis if a measure to amend the provision.

The SPA leaders have agreed to meet Sunday morning to forge an agreement on the remaining outstanding issues.

“The first decision is that the CA elections will be held by upcoming month of Chaitra (mid-April 2008) at any cost,” UML leader Jhala Nath Khanal said, emerging from the meeting. “The other decision is to remove a provision in the constitution, which states that the elections will be held by Mangshir (December 15).”

The top leaders had reassembled at the PM’s official residence at Baluwatar in the afternoon forming a taskforce to evolve a consensus on outstanding issues, including a power-sharing arrangement.

To amend the statute and to fix a new date for the CA elections, the parties today agreed to have a 601-member CA, out of which 335 would be elected through the Proportional Representation (PR) system, 240 from the first-past-the-post and the remaining 26 would be appointed, sources said.

A provision in the interim constitution stipulates a 497-member CA.

Similarly, the parties have agreed to incorporate words “Nepal will go to a federal republic” in the third amendment to the interim constitution, sources claimed, adding that the parties have finally agreed on the electoral system.

PR system for the CA elections was one of the main stumbling blocks, which had led to the political stalemate for months and thwarted the elections.

Other sources, however, said that the Maoists are in the mood to write a note of decent on the agreement as they insist that the issue of the PR should be finalised through a roundtable conference of people of all backgrounds if the parties do not evolve a consensus for an all-out PR.

This morning the meeting of top SPA leaders was postponed, constituting the taskforce comprising influential leaders to hammer out an amicable solution of the power-sharing row by this afternoon.

The taskforce was formed after there was no headway on the issue of power sharing among the three major parties—Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist.

The taskforce comprises Maoist leader Babu Ram Bhattarai, NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi, UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Left Front leader C P Mainali and the People’s Front leader Lila Mani Pokharel.

It was also asked to forge an understanding on the other contentious political issues and submit its report once the meeting of the top SPA leaders resumed.

The SPA leaders had decided to meet today after yesterday’s talks failed over the reallocation of key ministries among the major parties.

Parliament, which was initially scheduled to begin at 4:00 pm, was delayed by hours as the leaders strived to forge an agreement, especially on the new date for the CA elections.

Even as the SPA leaders reached near a common ground on the issue of declaration of a republic, electoral system for the elections, formation of a special committee in the cabinet to implement the government's agreements reached with ethnic, Madhesi and marginalised groups, provision of relief to victims of the insurgency, integration of Maoist combatants and all outstanding issues, the political deadlock remained unresolved yesterday as the NC refused to agree on allotting the Home, Defense and Finance ministries among the three largest parties as demanded by Maoist and the UML leaders.



Posted on: 2007-12-15 02:06:12 (Server Time)