"The meeting unanimously decided to help the government pass the budget in the House," UML leader Bharatmohan Adhikari told Republica.[break]
Earlier, party Chairman Jhalanath Khanal had publicly spoken against presenting the budget without first forging a consensus among the major political parties.
"Our priority is to bring the annual budget through consensus but now we have decided not to delay it further as it has become too late," clarified UML Secretary Yuvaraj Gyawali, who is close to Khanal.
On the high-level three-party talks on ending the political stalemate, the UML meeting decided to hold separate talks with UCPN (Maoist) and Nepali Congress (NC) leaders on Sunday. "We will talk to Maoist and NC leaders separately with a view to make the next three-party meeting a decisive one," Adhikari said. He said their efforts will be focused on preparing a common proposal on concluding the peace process.
According to Gyawali, the UML is open to adopting a presidium or rotational system for forming the new government if that is acceptable to other political parties. "We are not rigid about it. Since the Maoists have lately come out in a flexible manner, we also need to be open about the various options," Gyawali said.
The leaders at the meeting also discussed the proposal floated by the Maoists for ending the peace process. The Maoist have put forward a scheme with a one-month timeline to address specific issues including those related to Maoist combatants, return of property seized by Maoists and de-barracking the Maoists´ Young Communist League.
Though Khanal and some UML leaders have hailed the Maoist proposal as a positive step toward concluding the peace process, the NC and some other UML leaders including KP Sharma Oli have termed it inadequate. They said the Maoists needed to fix the number of combatants they want integrated into the security agencies and set a timeline for vacating UN-monitored cantonments.
However, Gyawali said the numbers can be fixed once the process of dissociating the combatants from the Maoist party starts.
On the ongoing prime ministerial election process, the UML reiterated that the candidacy of NC leader Ram Chandra Paudel, the lone candidate in the race, needs to be withdrawn and the election process should start afresh after an amendment in the parliamentary regulations.
Oli, Bishnu Paudel and Shankar Pokharel, however, were absent from the meeting. Both Paudel and Pokharel are close to Oli. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Defense Minister Bidya Bhandari were present.
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