The government´s three-member talks team tasked with negotiating with the dissident political parties is scheduled to hold dialogues with the Upendra Yadav-led Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF) on Saturday.[break]
Later, the talks team headed by Minister for Home and Foreign Affairs Madhav Ghimire, will also hold talks with the Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist and Ashok Rai-led Federal Socialist Party (FSP).
The three parties have announced to boycott polls to be conducted by the present bureaucratic government headed by Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi. Maoist cadres have been disrupting voter registration and other preparatory works carried out by the Election Commission.
In the meantime, the government also plans to simultaneously hold consultations with the major political parties, including UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF). The four parties are also represented in the High Level Political Committee formed to offer suggestions to the government on major political decisions.
“We will simultaneously hold talks with both the dissident as well as other political parties to find a common ground on some of the proposed provisions in the ordinance and other issues,” Minister for Health and Local Development Bidyadhar Mallik, who is also a member of the talks team, told Republica.
“Once an understanding is reached on the major political issues, we will forward the ordinance, form a commission to delineate constituencies and fix the poll date. If everything goes as planned, we will complete the tasks within the next two weeks.”
Though some election-related ordinances were issued recently, a major ordinance is yet to be finalized as political parties are sharply divided over some of the proposed provisions. The ordinance has a threshold provision that makes it mandatory for a political party to get at least one percent of the total valid votes for a seat in the legislature under the proportional quota. Similarly, the ordinance states that an aspirant with criminal background can contest elections only six years after serving jail term as per the court verdict.
While UCPN (Maoist) and some other political parties are against the proposed provisions, NC and UML are lobbying in favor of the provisions. Sources privy to the development said the government is ready to demonstrate flexibility on provisions related to eligibility threshold for proportional seats and the candidate´s criminal background.
However, persuading the Baidya-led Maoist party is going to be a hard nut to crack for the government talks team because Baidya has publicly said that his party doesn´t recognize the Regmi government and the high-level political committee as legitimate bodies.
He has been insisting on scrapping the 11-point political agreement reached last month among the four political forces -- UCPN (Maoist), NC, UML and UDMF-- that paved the way for formation of the present government, as a precondition for talks.
Mallik conceded that persuading the Baidya-led party may be a big challenge but the government talks team is optimistic. Sources said informal talks being held at various levels through different channels have instilled confidence into the dialogue team.
“There are different schools of thought within the party and we are approaching all of them and we are hopeful that we can find some common points since no one can rule out elections,” said one of the members of the talks team.
An official knowledgeable about the progress said that the experience of Home Minister Ghimire and Health Minister Mallik is helping them as they were at times overseeing the ministry of peace during their tenure as top bureaucrats. The official said their experience and contacts used for talks with various political groups during the time has helped the team find the right persons to negotiate and create a favorable situation prior to holding formal dialogues.
Asked about the approach they would adopt if the Baidya-led Maoist party remained rigid on its preconditions, Mallik said the government will take a decision after holding consultations with broader political sides.
“We are hopeful that we can move forward with an understanding of carrying out election-related works even if some differences persist," said Mallik. He argued that due respect and space can be given to each other even while giving continuity to the preparatory works for elections.
But he said the government wouldn´t remain indecisive for long. "If a particular party remains rigid, we have to take a decision because the government can´t remain indecisive for long," he added.
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