The Agreement To Conclude The Peace Process

The agreement

1. The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal will have eight provinces based on five criteria of identity and four criteria of capability.

2. Two-thirds majority of provincial assemblies will name the provinces.

3. The Nepal government will form a federal commission to recommend on demarcation of federal provinces. The commission will have a tenure of six months. The Legislature-Parliament will take a final decision on the demarcation with a two-thirds majority after the recommendation of the commission.

Parliament and Electoral System

4. There will be a bicameral parliament comprising federal legislature parliament and the upper house. Provincial parliaments will be unicameral.

5. Mixed electoral system will be adopted for parliamentary election. There will be 275 members in Parliament. There will be 165 constituencies based on geography and population. A total of 165 lower house members will be elected through first-past-the-post (FPTP) system. The rest—110--will be elected through the proportional representation system.

6. The upper house will have 45 members--40 of the members will be elected equally from each federal province. The remaining five will be nominated by President on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers.

Forms of Government

7. To run the state affairs, a federal democratic republic multiparty parliamentary system of governance will be adopted. The leader of the party having a clear majority or having support of other parties in Parliament will become the executive prime minister.

8. There will be a constitutional President in Nepal. An electoral college of the federal legislature parliament and provincial assemblies will elect the President.

(The UCPN (Maoist) has its differences on the parliamentary system of governance and the constitutional president. Despite this, the party agrees to taking forward the constitution writing process.)

9. After the promulgation of the new constitution, the election of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be held by the transformed Legislature-Parliament as per the Interim Constitution-2007.

10. Until the next election of the House of Representatives, the transformed Legislature-Parliament will hold the election of the Prime Minister, vote of confidence, no confidence motion and Cabinet formation as per the Interim Constitution-2007. The impeachment of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Speaker, Deputy Speaker will be in accordance with the Interim Constitution-2007.

Judicial System

11. An independent, impartial and efficient judicial system will be formed as per the concept of independent judiciary.

12. The Supreme Court will be the court of record. It will be authorised to make final interpretation of the constitution.

13. A Constitutional Court will be formed in order to settle disputes on the jurisdictions between the provinces and the Centre, between provinces, between provinces and local bodies, and election-related disputes of the House of Representatives, National Assembly and provincial assemblies. The Constitutional Court shall have the final decision on these issues. The court will be chaired by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and will comprise two senior-most justices, and two legal experts who are qualified for the post of Supreme Court Justice. The tenure of the Constitutional Court will be 10 years from the promulgation of the new constitution.

14. The provision on the formation of the Judicial Council will be as determined by the Interim Constitution-2007.

15. The constitution writing process will be taken forward based on the spirit of this fundamental agreement on federalism, forms of government, electoral system, and judicial system.

Local Body Election

16. The election of local bodies will be held as soon as possible to strengthen the representation and participation of the people.

Sushil Koirala, Prime Minister and President, Nepali Congress

KP Sharma Oli, Chairman, CPN-UML

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Chairman, UCPN (Maoist)

Bijay Kumar Gachhadar, Chairman, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Loktantrik