KATHMANDU, Aug 8: As the leaders from the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) complete their first formal talks with the Federal Socialist Party (FSP) in an effort to bring the dissident party on board the election process, some negotiators involved in the dialogues have expressed optimism about the FSP participating in the Constituent Assembly (CA) polls scheduled for November 19.
FSP Chairman Ashok Rai submitted a five-point demand to UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who also heads the HLPC that guides the present government in taking crucial political decisions, on Thursday. [break]
Dissolution of the HLPC and formation of an all-party mechanism to discuss key political issues and scrapping of the 11-point political agreement and the 25-point ordinance to remove constitutional difficulties are two of the five demands.
"Don´t make any changes in the total strength of the past CA and its representation ratio," the party said in its demand letter. "Start all the election-related procedures only after forging a consensus with the agitating political parties."
Similarly, the FSP has also demanded that government make all arrangements of voting for all Nepali citizens who are abroad.
After listening to the FSP´s demands, UCPN (Maoist) leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha has expressed optimistic that the party may join the upcoming elections. "My impression is that Ashokji and his party will join the upcoming election," Shrestha told Republica.
Asked if the HLPC constituent parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) -- are ready to address their demands, Shrestha claimed that he was confident in FSP exhibiting flexibility on the demands once the negotiations make headway. "I believe that they will maintain flexibility and be ready to make some adjustments on their in the demands," said Shrestha.
However, FSP leaders after the meeting did not express similar optimism. "The leaders from the HLPC side weren´t prepared at all to negotiate on our demands even as our concerns have been public for many days," FSP Vice-chairman Rijwan Ansari, who was present at the meeting, told Republica. "That made us disappointed."
Leaders from the party believed that they needed to launch strong protests to exert pressure on the HLPC. "They are using the tactic of delaying the entire process in the name of holding dialogues. So we have to show our strength and prove that our party is a rising political force," said the party´s Deputy Under Secretary Ajambar Rai Kangmang.
The FSP has announced to boycott the polls to be conducted by the present chief justice-led government as the party had objected to the idea of forming a CJ-led bureaucratic government. A group of former lawmakers and central as well as local level leaders mostly from the CPN-UML formed the FSP last year. The leaders quit the UML and formed the new party vowing to fight for ethnic identity-based federal model.
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