The decision was taken at a meeting of the 33-party alliance held at the CPN-Maoist head office at Buddhanagar on Monday. Last week, the CPN-Maoist had formed a five-member talks team headed by the party´s chairman Mohan Baidya before he left for a four-day visit to China. [break]
"The 33-party meeting today [Monday] decided that the CPN-Maoist will hold talks with the government and the political committee only if the alliance itself is invited for negotiations," Gurung told Republica.
Taking strong exception to CPN-Maoist´s unilateral decision to form its own talks team, leaders from the other 32 parties of the alliance had boycotted a meeting called by CPN-Maoist Secretary Dev Gurung on July 10.
According to Gurung, once the 33-party alliance is invited to talks, the alliance would form a joint talks team for the purpose.
Leaders from the 33 parties, however, maintained that they would negotiate with the government and the political committee only if there are no preconditions.
"At present the HLPC member parties and the government have been insisting that the November 19 election date cannot be postponed and that the dissident political parties should participate in the polls to be conducted by the present government," said Gurung. "These preconditions are not acceptable."
The 33-party meeting also decided to come up with protest programs to disrupt the elections if the government atempted to "impose the elections on the people".
Baidya admits mistakes
Baidya at the 33-party meeting Monday admitted that his party committed a mistake by forming five-member talks team without consulting the members of the alliance.
"Baidyaji today admitted that it was a technical mistake on their part to form the CPN-Maoist party´s talks team without informing other parties," said Mani Thapa, chief of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Nepal, a member party of the alliance.
Alliance to talk to foreign diplomats
Leaders from the 33 parties also decided to convene a meeting with the representatives of Kathmandu-based foreign missions to inform them about the alliance´s stance on the elections.
"We will make it clear before the international community that we aren´t against elections. We are for forging national consensus on holding elections," said Thapa.
The 33-party alliance has been demanding dissolution of the present government saying that formation of government under the leadership of chief justice is against the principle of separation of powers. The alliance has been pressuring for forming of a new government of political parties.
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