'Pro-federalists' alliance is long-term strategy: Dahal
"This force may work as an electoral alliance or may go for protests jointly in future if need be." ..... The alliance has said its immediate plan is to form a broader political force with the objective of garnering an overwhelming majority in the next CA polls, to promulgate a constitution ensuring a federal democratic system based on ethnic identity and to expose the elements that are against ´a forward-looking and progressive constitution".Dahal heads 26-party 'pro-federalist' alliance
Finance Minister Barshaman Pun from UCPN (Maoist), Minister for Physical Planning and Works Hridayesh Tripathi from Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), Jitendra Dev of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D), Prem Bahadur Singh of Socialist People´s Party and Bishwendra Paswan of Dalit Janajati Party are in the taskforce. ..... Parties represented at the meeting include UCPN (Maoist), Madhesi People´s Rights Forum, Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic, Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Republican, Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party, Federal Sadbhavana Party, Rastriya Sadbhavana Party, Sadbhavana Party, Nepal Democratic Socialist Party, Nepal Family Party, CPN-ML (Socialist), Churebhawar Rastriya Ekta Party, Tamsaling Nepal Rastriya Dal, Nawa Janawadi Morcha, Nawa Nepal Nirwan Party and Nepaa Rastriya Party, among others.UML spawns more divergence on federalism
The CPN-UML has failed to rescue itself from a morass of intra-party disputes over state restructuring, with the failure of its central committee (CC) to come up with any unanimous official position on federalism. ..... At least five divergent views emerged at the conclusion of the CC meeting and these were officially registered at the party secretariat. .... the number of members lobbying against federalism is on the increase in the UML.No alternative to federalism with strong identity basis
Some parties were ready to accept the death of CA, but not to accept federalism. .... At one point, we collected up to 407 signatures of CA members in favor of federalism. But even then, we could not save the CA. What we learned from this was that although the vast majority of the CA members were in favor of federalism, there were other spoilsports who would commit to agreements but back off when it came to implementing them. ..... federalism is the necessity of the traditionally marginalized communities like Madhesis, Janajatis, Adhiwasis, women and Muslims ..... Those who have been benefitting from the existing state structure are reluctant to address the identity question of the marginalized groups. The reason federalism became such a contested topic was not over the issue of demarcation or nomenclature of states, but because of the reluctance of the old elites to let go of their traditional powers and privileges. .... Even now there are many forces that say the next election should be for a parliament as the CA has already proven to be a failure. But how will such a parliament be elected and what rights will it have? Until NC and UML can come up with clear answers to these questions, this option will not be acceptable to us. The constitution must come through a CA proper. ..... The opposition parties cannot create national consensus by leaving aside the forces in the current ruling coalition. .... The other important point is that all the major parties are suffering from various internal problems. The reason they are demanding the government’s resignation is to try to divert attention away from these in-party divisions. This is also one of the main reasons we have not been able to arrive at meaningful agreements. The noise about resignation is purely for public consumption. ..... If we are to go for reinstatement, we will need to settle contentious issues beforehand because we have seen how political leaders who were not even the members of CA were trying to forge vital agreements outside the formal CA mechanism. ..... These players were determined to abort the CA because they didn’t want a mechanism that didn’t include them to promulgate the constitution. .... the opposition parties had been saying that they would solve the constitutional issues in a matter of days as soon as the issue of integration of PLA was settled. But when there was a major breakthrough in integration on April 10 and only some technical issues remained, the same people made a U-turn. They now started nitpicking .... There can be no alternative to federal Nepal and federalism with strong identity component.President rejects ordinances
While rejecting the ordinances, the president´s office argued that the they are not "relevant" in light of the cancellation of the November 22 polls. ..... the President may, on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, promulgate any Ordinance as required without prejudice to the provisions set forth in the Interim Constitution. .... the president has already approved the budget, two ordinances on anti-money laundering and another on the perks and facilities for former VIPS. .... The president has already publicly spoken against the government move to rule the country through ordinances. And Dahal said the president decided not to promulgate the ordinance related to the election as they lacked "minimum political understanding".Prez urges Dahal's role to break deadlock
President Ram Baran Yadav has once again asked Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal to play a special role in his capacity as the leader of the largest party, to find a solution to the present political and constitutional deadlock. ..... The president urged the chairman of the Maoist party during a meeting with leaders of the newly formed pro-federalist alliance led by Dahal, at Shital Niwas on Thursday evening. ..... "You are the leader who should and can take on a special responsibility, after the death of Girija Prasad Koirala, to find a solution to the present political deadlock"NC backs Khum Bahadur to the hilt
A Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting of the party that began Thursday termed the court verdict ´unjust´ ..... At the outset of the meeting, President Sushil Koirala had told that NC was under attack from various quarters. While putting the issue of court verdict against Khadka an agenda for discussion in the meeting, Koirala had argued that the verdict had put Khadka into ´injustice´. ..... argued that only NC leaders were victimized as the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed graft cases selectively against NC leaders during the direct rule of then King Gyanendra also. Earlier, the court convicted Govinda Raj Joshi, Chiranjeevi Wagle and former NC leader J P Gupta of corruption. ..... Deuba also alleged that courts and anti-graft bodies were biased against NC leaders and spared the leaders from other political parties. .... decided to call the party´s Mahasamiti meeting from October 10 to 13 in Janakpur.Leaders agree on mixed system of governance
a mixed system of governance in which the executive powers will be shared between the directly-elected president and parliament-elected prime minister. During discussions led by top leaders of political parties at CA building in Baneshwar on Sunday evening, the leaders also agreed on directly-elected vice-president. ..... “As far as the possibility of conflict between the two power centers is concerned, the constitution will define the jurisdictions and the parliament will be mandated to arbitrate in disputes between the head of state and the head of government.” .... Tripathi said such a system is already practised in Finland .... leaders discussed other contentious issues such as state restructuring, electoral model, judicial system and the provisions of citizenship to be enshrined in the new constitution. ..... form the constitutional court with a mandate to arbitrate in disputes between the federal and provincial governments or between one province with another or between the province and local bodies. ..... UCPN (Maoist), Madhes-based political parties and ethnic leaders have been lobbying for the constitutional court but Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and some other small political parties opposed the idea saying creating a body parallel to the Supreme Court would invite unnecessary friction in the judiciary. ..... such a court would have a defined jurisdiction and would have a five-year term after the promulgation of the new constitution.
