It might not be a bad idea to expand the size of the House: 40 seats for the Maoists, and 25 for others, like members of the civil society, the DaMaJaMa leaders, youth leaders like Gagan Thapa. The total size would be 270.
Constituent Assembly: 300 Seats Of Roughly Equal PopulationThat could also be the size of the constituent assembly. One seat for every 100,000 Nepali.
The Maoists want the House dissolved. The seven party alliance is against the idea. The UML wants the local bodies revived. The Maoists are opposed to that idea. So we have to get creative and seek some middle ground.
And we have to remember, this is a short term thing. The real issue is not the interim government. The real issue is the constituent assembly. Let the eight parties prove themselves to the people, not to each other.
Right now the Maoists are missing at the center and the seven parties are missing at the local levels. All eight parties should be present at both the center and at the local levels. The concept of eight party government has to be applied also at the village, town and district levels for the interim period.
But the real challenge is to (1) fast forward the peace talks, (2) hold elections to a constituent assembly, (3) draw up a new constitution, (4) submit it to a referendum, (5) hold parliamentary elections, (6) hold local elections.
Because the all party governments at the local levels will last longer than the one at the center, it actually is more important that the Maoists do their part for the formation of all party governments at the local levels.
