Prime Minister Sushil Koirala on Sunday formally invited Opposition alliance and other agitating represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) to resume talks on the new Constitution.
Giving a preliminary reaction immediately afterwards, the UCPN (Maoist), termed the call for dialogue “vague” and conveying “double meaning”.
“I appeal to all the political parties represented in the Constituent Assembly and partners in the peace process and the People’s Movement to immediately sit for meaningful talks to forger consensus and understanding on promulgating the Constitution,” said a written statement from Mr. Koirala.
The Prime Minister also said that the “ongoing Constitution writing process should not be delayed any further”.
The PM’s formal call comes amidst a deadlock over the new statute. While the ruling parties —the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML — have initiated the process of deciding the disputes through voting in the CA, the Opposition alliance comprising of the UCPN (Maoist), Madhesi Morcha and fringe parties has announced a series of nationwide protest programmes against it.
The Opposition wants the disputes decided through consensus; the government says it is following through a previous agreement by all the parties to go for voting if consensus failed. After rounds of formal and informal talks, the parties have not been able to strike agreement on federalism, model of governance and electoral system. While deciding CA’s Rules of Procedure on March 21, 2014, the parties agreed to adopt voting if the parties failed to reach consensus on disputes of the Constitution.
Secretary of the UCPN (Maoist) Barsha Man Pun dubbed the PM’s call vague. “If the intention was to forge consensus and cooperation, the statement would not have continued vague language,” he told reporters at a press conference in the capital. Mr. Pun added the intention was to confuse and weaken the Opposition parties’ protest programmes.
“However, we will come up with a formal response on the PM’s statement after discussing it during a meeting of the 30-party alliance,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Proposal Drafting Committee of the CA has prepared 234 questions on 103 subjects related to the Constitution. The questions, according to CA members involved in it, have been based on the report of the Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (PDCC) of the CA and suggestions and dissent from various political parties.
