A meeting of the political parties under the aegis of the high-level political committee (HLPC) on Sunday failed to reach consensus on some parties’ demand to form a probe panel into “election fraud”.
It, however, agreed to give continuity to the body until the new government was formed. The meeting will resume on Monday.
At the meeting, the UCPN (Maoist) suggested extending deadline to submit names to the Election Commission under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system. The EC has already extended the deadline once, with the second one expiring on Wednesday.
The meeting failed to reach consensus on the UCPN (Maoist) and other small parties demand to form an independent commission to probe “election fraud”.
While the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML suggest forming a parliamentary committee to probe the alleged fraud, the dissenting parties insisted on constituting an independent commission.
The two largest parties have rejected the demand to form a probe body outside the CA, saying such a move would demean the authority of the Parliament. They have urged the dissenting parties to join the CA first instead.
The HLPC met on Sunday with the one on Saturday also failing to resolve the issue. The Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML, the UCPN (Maoist) and the Madhesi Morcha — a front of Madhesi parties — are members of the HLPC formed in March during the formation of the technocrat government to hold the election. The parties formed the political body to “supervise and advise” the government.
Earlier on Sunday, a meeting of the alliance of 18 political parties led by the UCPN (Maoist) reiterated its condition of not joining the new Constituent Assembly unless an independent investigation into “institutional and policy-level rigging” into the elections was formed.
Most of the parties in the alliance performed poorly in the election held on November 19, with some of them drawing a blank.
