The Nepali Congress and CPN-UML on Friday said that they were ready to accommodate the demands of the Opposition parties if they withdrew their protest programmes.
"If they (the opposition alliance) are really in favour of a consensus then they should come forward by cancelling all their programmes of protest,” said CPN-UML Vice Chairman Bhim Rawal, after a meeting of the two ruling parties at the Prime Minister’s official residence at Baluwatar. “Then we will also be ready to think what can be done next."
Nepali Congress Vice-President Ram Chandra Paudel said they are in favour of working with the political parties with whom they collaborated on the 12-point agreement (of 2005), the second People's Movement of 2006, and the 2007 Comprehensive Peace Accord. “We are ready to wait for them if they come to the negotiating table,” he said. He was referring to UCPN (Maoist) and the Madhes-based parties.
Mr. Paudel pointed to the extension of the term of the Proposal Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly by five days, saying the purpose was to wait for the Opposition.
The NC and the UML also decided to pursue talks with the Opposition and the process in the Constituent Assembly simultaneously. It also entrusted Prime Minister Sushil Koirala with the responsibility of coordinating the two tasks.
The Opposition has announced a series of nation-wide protest programmes to protest the government’s move to initiate the process of voting on the disputes over the new Constitution. The government which has the required two-thirds majority has cited previous agreements in which all the parties agreed to go for the process of voting if consensus failed. All political parties had endorsed the CA Rules on March 21, 2014 which specifically calls for adopting that approach.
Despite many rounds of bilateral and multi-party talks, the parties have not been unable to reach consensus on federalism, model of governance and electoral system. The parties also missed their self-imposed deadline of promulgating the Constitution on January 22 this year.