KATHMANDU, SEP 15 - Mellowing down its stance on consensus only after prime minister's resignation, Nepali Congress (NC) has said it is ready to seek solutions in a package to the current constitutional and political deadlock. The NC stance seems similar to the position taken by the UCPN (Maoist).
The party said that May-15 agreement among parties could be a basis for continuing negotiations instead of holding fresh dialogue on contentious issues of constitution. Earlier, the party had maintained that it would not hold any discussion on contentious issues of constitution, CA revival or fresh elections unless Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai stepped down.
“We are ready to seek a package deal on all disputed issues, including the PM's resignation. We have felt an urgent need of consensus among parties,” said NC Spokesperson Dilendra Badu. According to leaders, the party softened its stance to dispel doubts that the NC is hankering after power, putting aside pressing political issues.
The party is preparing a concrete roadmap to end the current deadlock, including the party's official position on contentious issues of federalism. NC top leaders have been engaging in intra-party informal talks from Thursday to come up with the party's position for negotiations with major political forces, particularly the UCPN (Maoist).
Senior leaders are holding informal discussions postponing the party's Central Working Committee meeting. However, the faction led by senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba has not been invited to the talks. The party is expected to come up with a way out of the political impasse on Saturday. An informal meeting of top leaders on Friday concluded that the party should remain open to both CA revival and fresh elections.
The meeting proposed resuming negotiation from where it was stalled before dissolution of the Constituent Assembly (CA) on May 27. NC leaders have suggested holding talks only on unresolved issues of the constitution.
The party is preparing to put forth the agreement forged among major parties on May 15 as a basis for further negotiations. On May 15, major political parties had agreed to federate the country into 11 provinces and adopt a mixed system on forms of governance. They had also agreed to adopt a mixed model in the electoral system. A taskforce formed by CPN-UML few days ago had also suggested the leadership take stance on preparing a draft of the constitution based on the same agreement.
Maoist and Madhes-based parties have “backtracked” from the agreement stating that the deal could not address aspirations of the Madhesi and Janajati communities. “That was a tentative agreement among parties, and negotiations should focus on settling the nitty-gritty of the same deal,” said NC Spokesperson Badu.
The NC is of the view that parties should hold serious talks on resolving contentious issues of constitution and reviving the CA, provided consensus is had just for an interim period to promulgate a constitution. If consensus is not possible within the deadline, according to leaders, parties should engage on dialogue to hold fresh CA elections, clearing constitutional and legal hurdles.
Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/09/15/top-story/nc-softens-stance-on-consensus-bid/360250/
0 comments:
Post a Comment