"The party will be lobbying in favor of its stance till the last. But since the constitution is a document of compromise our party can´t remain rigid," CC member Ghanshyam Bhusal told Republica. "Therefore, the CC meeting has decided to show flexibility as and when needed."[break]
The third-largest party is officially for adopting a parliamentary system with a directly elected prime minister as executive head and a ceremonial president as head of state. Similarly, the party is for adopting a mixed electoral model.
"We still believe that the model proposed by our party is appropriate but we don´t want the constitution making process to be halted just becuase of our stance," said UML Politburo Member Bishnu Rimal.
According to Rimal, the meeting also decided to be ready for give and take if needed to settle the remaining contentious issues in the peace process. He said the UML official stance is to integrate 5,000 combatants but it has decided not to be rigid over numbers either. "We can be flexible over numbers if the Maoists reciprocate with flexibility over other issues," he said.
The meeting decided to let the party standing committee come up with a proposal on work division among party leaders, at the next central committee meeting to start October 13. The reshuffle is being mooted with a view to give more responsibility to party leaders who were ministers in previous UML-led governments.
Commission to probe journo attack
The CC meeting gave full shape to a commission formed to probe the attack on journalist Khilanath Dhakal by UML youth-wing leaders.
Earlier, the party had formed a one-member body of Vice-chairman Ashok Rai. The new members of the commission are Vice-chairperson Bidya Devi Bhandari and Central Committee Members Rajendra Gautam and Yogesh Bhattarai.
Biratnagar-based journalist Dhakal was mercilessly assaulted by Youth Force (YF) members in June. Two YF cadres have been arrested over the incident, while YF leader Parshuram Basnet, who allegedly masterminded the attack, is still at large.
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