Talks among leaders from the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and the United Madhesi Democratic Front yielded no result on Saturday either as all sides stuck to their guns.[break]
While forming the election government, leaders want to reach a package deal on the criteria for voter registration, the key provision on formation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and rank determination for former Maoist combatants who opted to join the Nepal Army and are undergoing training for that purpose.
"Though we have settled several other issues, we couldn´t seal a deal today [Saturday] as the Maoists insisted that the senior-most Maoist combatants be given at least one position of colonel and two of lieutenant colonel in the Nepal Army," UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam told reporters after the talks held at the secretariat of the cross-party special committee at New Baneshwar.
According to Gautam, NC and UML leaders are for elevating the senior Maoist combatants only after they complete national army training for the given posts. "But Maoist leaders clearly said that they can´t be flexible over the matter even if talks break down for that reason," said Gautam.
UCPN (Maoist) leader Amik Sherchan also confirmed that the talks ended inconclusively due to differences over the issue of rank determination. He claimed that the NC leaders were more rigid over the matter though the UML team present at the meeting was relatively flexible.
However, UML Vice-chairperson Bidyadevi Bhandari, a former defense minister, said there was no difference between the NC and UML positions over the matter. "Leaders from both NC and UML emphasized that the NA´s established norms must not be breached. But the Maoist leaders insisted on one post of colonel and two of lieutenant colonel for Maoist combatants through a political agreement," Bhandari told Republica.
She explained that NC and UML leaders are for elevating the former Maoist combatants to those posts only as per NA´s own due process.
Also, other issues related to TRC formation and voter registration are yet to be resolved.
While the ruling UCPN (Maoist) leaders want to include a provision of general amnesty for all those involved in human rights violations during the decade-long Maoist insurgency, NC and the UML have strongly objected to the provision. They have been insisting that the perpetrators involved in serious human rights violations must not be given any blanket amnesty.
Similarly, the leaders haven´t settled their differences over the criteria of voter registration. They differ over how to cover those who had cast their votes during the Constituent Assembly election in 2008 but are not being enlisted in the voter registration with photographs and thumbprints, which is being carried out by the Election Commission.
Leaders from Madhes-based parties have been insisting that those who already voted during the previous CA polls must be enlisted in the voter registration, while leaders from other parties have been arguing that they must produce citizenship cards to be registered as voters because the existing laws require that every individual must be a citizenship certificate holder to be eligible for voting.
NC and UML leaders are for distributing citizenship certificates to those who have been deprived of them and only then should they be registered in the voters´ list.
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