While the chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi has expedited parleys with different political parties to learn their views on the issue, major political parties in the HLPC have also initiated serious negotiations among themselves to revise their previous agreement on the seats allocated under the proportional electoral system. [break]
Earlier, the four major political forces -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) -- had reached an agreement to allocate 240 seats each under first-past-the-post (FPTP) and PR systems, with 11 more seats to be filled through nominationss in the new 491-member Constituent Assembly (CA) elections. The fringe parties, which are now backed by the UCPN (Maoist) and UDMF, have maintained that the agreement among the big four parties to reduce the number of seats under the PR system threatens adequate representation of marginalized groups in the CA.
In the former 601-member CA, 335 seats were allocated under the PR system and 240 under the FPTP system. If the fresh CA elections are held as per the agreement reached among the four major parties, the ratio between the PR and FPTP will stand at approximately 49:49.
Sources at the Office of the Chairman of Interim Election Council said the government is holding negotiations to learn the opinion of various parties on the issue. “One thing is almost certain now. The size of the CA will be increased from the proposed 491 seats in order to appease the concerns of the agitating parties. This means the seats allocated for PR system will be increased,” said a source, asking to be unnamed.
However, both officials at the Chairman´s office and top political leaders deny having reached any agreement on the number of CA seats as yet. “While there have been demands to keep the size of the erstwhile CA intact, there are also various suggestions to keep the size of the CA between 550 and 585 seats. We are holding discussions before taking any decision on the issue,” said a political leader involved in the inter-party talks.
With various fringe parties expressing reservations over a number of provisions in the election ordinance forwarded by the Election Commission, the government has failed to forward an Ordinance to Amend Election to the Members of Constituent Assembly to President Dr Ram Baran Yadav for approval and announce fresh date for the CA election. The main concerns fringe parties have expressed include provision to bar candidates with criminal backgrounds to contest in the election, one percent election eligibility threshold and requirement of 10,000 signatures to register a new party.
Chairman Regmi´s press advisor Bimal Gautam said the government is holding a series of parleys with various parties keeping in view the concerns raised by various parties on election-related ordinance. “The government will take a decision on the issue once the parleys with political parties are over,” said Gautam. “As for now, the government is mulling over various options for addressing the particular concern about the PR system.”
HLPC to hold talks with other parties on election-related issues
A High Level Political Committee (HLPC) meeting on Friday decided to hold talks with various political parties that are not represented in the HLPC on election-related issues within the next three days.
Talking to media persons after the HLPC meeting, CPN-UML leader Bhim Rawal said the meeting decided to hold talks with the parties to address their concerns on various issues related to the fresh CA election. "There has been an agreement to expedite talks with the agitating parties at the special initiative of HLPC coordinator to create a conducive environment for polls," he said. The meeting will mainly deal with reaching agreement on various contentious issues including the size of the CA to address the concerns of the agitating fringe parties.
UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal took over as chairman of the HLPC for a month starting Wednesday. As in the Thursday´s meeting, the HLPC meeting on Friday also dwelt on revoking all the political appointments made by the erstwhile Baburam Bhattarai-led government. But as the UCPN (Maoist) rejected the proposal of the Nepali Congress and the UML outright, there was no specific agreement on the issue.
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