At a press conference organized at Singha Durbar on Saturday, NC´s parliamentary party leader and prime ministerial candidate Ram Chandra Poudel said the hidden parts of the deal between the two parties signed without consulting NC and other parties have yet to revealed. [break]
Based on the indications so far, the deal appears to be yet another rhetoric for consensus to betray the people, reads a press state statement issued at the function.
Nevertheless, Poudel stressed that the NC is committed to taking the ongoing process in the parliament to elect new prime minister to a logical end. “NC has made it clear that it is ready to withdraw candidacy but only after a package deal,” he said.
“There is no provision to terminate the ongoing prime ministerial election process midway. The parliament should either elect me or defeat me by majority votes.”
NC maintains that the Maoists must first agree on issues related to the peace process including the management of arms and its combatants and arrive at consensus on all contentious issues related to peace process and modality and leadership of new government before withdrawing from the race for prime minister.
As chances of the major political parties reaching consensus on prime ministerial candidate appear slim, the up coming 10th round of voting in parliament scheduled for October 6 is likely to turn out futile.
Poudel said though the three major political parties a few months ago sorted out six-point agenda, including review of the implementation of the past agreements, creating an environment of trust, conclusion of the ongoing peace process and sharing of power for a few months to end the current political deadlock.
“However, the Maoists have focused their talks only on power-sharing deal so far,” he added.
He alleged that though the Maoists have been talking about national consensus government, they are indeed bent on forming a majority government without addressing the issues related to peace process and constitution drafting. He argued that the recent deal between the Maoists and the CPN-UML could be seen in the same light.
NC said that it already forwarded a four-point proposal to the Maoists for ending the current deadlock through a package deal. Though the Maoists said they would study the proposal and sit for another round of dialogue, they have not responded to the NC yet.
“NC is committed to taking the ongoing peace process to a logical end. It is committed to promulgating a fully democratic constitution. And it is committed to move ahead by forging consensus with all parties not for power but for peace and democracy,” reads the statement. “NC´s proposal is: Let us make a package deal.”
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