KATHMANDU, July 12: President Dr Ram Baran Yadav on Monday called upon political parties to form a majority government after the big three parties failed to forge a national consensus despite a series of negotiations.
According to the President´s Press Advisor, Rajendra Dahal, President Yadav sent a message to the Parliament Secretariat asking the 601-member legislature to elect a prime minister by majority as per Article 38 (2) of the Interim Constitution.
Speaker Subas Nembang has called a meeting of Parliament´s Business Advisory Committee (BAC) for Tuesday afternoon to fix a date for electing a new prime minister.
The President´s call came after the UCPN (Maoist), the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML failed to forge consensus even after the extended deadline of five days for forging consensus expired on Monday.
Following the resignation of Prime Minister Madhav Nepal on July 1, President Yadav had set a one-week deadline for the parties to form a national consensus government as per Article 38 (1) of the Interim Constitution. The deadline was extended by five days on the request of all 25 political parties represented in the legislature.
On Monday, top leaders of the Maoists, NC and the UML sat for a fresh round of dialogue at CA building at New Baneshwar in a last-ditch effort to forge consensus. The meeting, however, ended inclusively as the Maoists showed no sign of budging from their stance on integration and rehabilitation of their combatants.
The NC and UML have asked the Maoists to bring a concrete work plan for the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants and also determine the number of combatants to be integrated in the security forces.
Talking to media after the meeting, Maoist vice chairman Narayankaji Shrestha said the NC and UML were not satisfied with their proposal on management of the cantoned combatants. “They said that the proposal does not provide enough ground for forming a national consensus government,” he said.
“Though we have moved at procedural level toward forming a majority government we have agreed to continue efforts at a political level to form a consensus government,” he said.
UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal said the NC and UML asked the Maoists to bring a proposal on integration and rehabilitation in line with the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) and other past agreements.
He said they have differences with the Maoists over standard norms, modality for integration and the number of combatants to be integrated into the security forces.
Khanal added that the parties will continue their negotiations to form a national consensus government as such a government is a must for promulgating the new constitution and taking the ongoing peace process to a logical end.
NC General Secretary Bimalendra Nidhi said the issue of management of Maoist combatants should be expedited as per the the CPA and other agreements to which UNMIN is a witness.
He said the Maoist proposals such as formation of a separate security force, bulk integration of their combatants into the army and integration of all combatants choosing to join the army are not acceptable to the NC. “Nowhere do agreements reached in the past make any such references,” he said.
Source: http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=20937
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