Making their demand during the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) meeting held at its secretariat in New Baneshwar, Thursday evening, the two parties said the "political appointments" were aimed at influencing the upcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) elections.[break]
However, UCPN (Maoist) and United Democratic Madhesi Front-- coalition partners in the Bhattarai-led government-- have rejected the proposal outright.
"Of course, we can reconsider some specific appointments if there is any genuine ground for doing so. But we cannot accept the revoking of all appointments that were made as per existing law," said UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha.
The formal proposal for revoking all political appointments made by the Bhattarai government comes in the wake of allegations by top NC and UML leaders that they were actually made with the ill intention of influencing the election outcome.
The two parties have been maintaining that annulment of these appointments is a must for ensuring free and fair elections.
Though the first HLPC meeting chaired by UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal also discussed various other issues, including the proportional representation threshold, ratio of seats under the first past the post (FPTP) and proportional systems, constituency delineations and the signatures required for registering a new party, there was no agreement on any of these.
The parties are scheduled to meet again on Friday afternoon, according to NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel.
Poudel said there has been agreement among all parties in the HLPC that the new constituency delineations should take place as per existing constitutional provisions while ensuring that the 205 constituencies that existed before the CA election in 2008 are left intact and the remaining 35 out of the total 240 constituencies are adjusted in line with changes seen in the population from the census of 2011.
The last HLPC meeting chaired by NC President Sushil Koirala has already directed the government to form the Election Constituency Delineation Commission at the earliest to respond to a demand raised especially by the Madhes-based parties.
Asked if there were any discussions on the names of those to be appointed to the Delineation Commission, UML leader Bhim Rawal said these appointments were to be made by the government as per constitutional provisions. "The High Level Political Committee is not supposed to give the names of candidates to be appointed to the Commission," he said.
During the meeting, the four parties were sharply divided over the eligibility threshold for election as the Maoists and UDMF wanted to avoid any such threshold. Also, the Maoists and UDMF proposed removable of the provision on collecting at least 10,000 voter signatures for registering a new party.
Though there was discussion to keep the ratio between the FPTP and proportional electoral systems the same as in the 2008 election, no specific agreement was reached. With regard to a previous agreement among the four parties to have 240 seats under FPTP, 240 others for proportional representation and 11 cabinet-appointed members, the Maoists and UDMF proposed to increase the seats allocated under the proportional system, arguing that this would address the concerns of the agitating parties.
The NC and UML stood against the idea, saying they should not backtrack from an agreement reached earlier.
The meeting, among other things, also decided to intensify talks with agitating party alliances including the one led by the CPN-Maoist and another led by Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Nepal.
"We have decided to make the HLPC better-organized and its meetings more regular," said UML leader Rawal, whose party will lead the HLPC for another month as per the agreement reached among the four major parties to head the body on a rotational basis.
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