CPN-Maoist Chairman Mohan Baidya, party Vice-chairman CP Gajurel and Secretary Dev Gurung handed over the letter to UN Resident Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick at a meeting between the two sides held in Lalitpur, Saturday evening. [break]
Leaders of the CPN-Maoist, the breakaway faction of the UCPN (Maoist), argued that the decision to deploy the national army during election would be a blatant violation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)-2006. The then underground Maoist party had become ready to lay down arms and join peaceful politics after the signing of the peace accord.
“In the letter, we have clearly mentioned that the deployment of the national army in the election will put the ongoing peace process in serious crisis and it is a blatant violation of the CPA,” Gajurel told Republica. The Maoist party also mentioned in the letter that the decision to deploy the army had raised several questions.
After the failure of talks among the major political parties and the agitating 33-party alliance led by Baidya, the government earlier this month decided to deploy the army in the coming election. The government took the decision with support from the constituent parties of the High Level Political Committee (HLPC), and the president subsequently endorsed it.
Though the Maoist leaders, during the meeting, discussed the party´s policy on participation in the election, they did not mention the question of such participation in their letter to the UN secretary general.
Gajurel said they will make the letter public once the general secretary receives it.
Ambassador of Switzerland to Nepal Urs Herren accompanied the UN resident coordinator during the meeting, which was convened at the initiative of the Maoist leaders.
At the meeting, the foreign envoys had enquired about the agitating Maoist party´s policy on the election and their genuine concerns. The Maoist leaders tried to convince the envoys that their party was not anti-election, arguing that they had participated in the first CA election in 2008 and they were ready to join the coming election as well if their demands were addressed.
They said they were not going to participate in the poll under the status quo. “We told them that the president´s issuing the 25-point ordinance to pave the way for the formation of a government under the leadership of the chief justice is unconstitutional. We will join the election only after that is corrected,” said Gajurel.
Major parties resume talks to woo Baidya
Meanwhile, some leaders from major parties have taken the initiative to resume dialogue with the agitating 33-party alliance in a bid to bring the Baidya-led party and alliance on board the election process.
Leaders said UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chair Narayankaji Shrestha took the initiative and Pradeep Giri from Nepali Congress (NC) and Surendra Pandey, Pradeep Gyawali and Gokarna Bista from CPN-UML were present during a meeting with alliance representatives Mani Thapa, Pasang Sherpa and Khagendra Makhim. No Maoist leader was present.
During the discussion, members of the 33-party alliance urged leaders from the major parties to take initiative to get chairman of the interim election government Khilraj Regmi to resign from the post of chief justice and defer the CA poll till the coming spring season. “There is a strong presence of pro-election forces within the alliance and even within the CPN-Maoist party. Therefore, we sought a positive role from other parties as well,” said Thapa.
In response, leaders from the HLPC parties sought a role from them to get the CPN-Maoist to make a concrete commitment to participate in the election.
“There is a strong argument that the CPN-Maoist may use the talks merely as time-buying tactics. That misgiving can be allayed only if they commit publicly in writing that they are ready to join the election process after Regmi´s resignation and deferral of the poll,” said Gyawali. “Then only can we discuss these issues.Otherwise it might be too late because the election process has already progressed quite far.”
According to one leader, some of the leaders from the major parties are for persuading the agitating parties by deferring the poll as a face-saving gesture.
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