During a meeting held between the two parties at Singha Durbar Friday afternoon, the two opposition parties reached an understanding that a proposal on a sensitive issue like state restructuring should not be made through voting. NC and UML leaders also conveyed their concerns to SRC members, according to leaders involved in the talks.[break]
“We have learnt that the commission is taking decisions through majority votes. If this is true then such decisions won´t be acceptable to us,” said NC leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat. “The issue of state restructuring is not something that can be decided on the basis of majority and minority voting.”
Dr Mahat argued that SRC was formed to forge consensus among parties on issues concerning state restructuring. “We would have voted in the parliament itself if the decisions were to be taken through majority voting,” he added.
CPN-UML leaders also vowed not to accept a state restructuring proposal based on majority votes.
The eight-member SRC comprises Malla K Sundar and Stella Tamang from the UCPN (Maoist), Ramesh Dhungel and Sabitri Thapa from the NC, Bhogendra Jha and Sarbaraj Khadka from UML, and Krishna Hachhethu and Surendra Mahato from the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF).
SRC members are reportedly sharply divided over the number of federal states and whether the federal states should be carved along ethnical lines and whether they should be delineated from north to south.
The reactions from NC and UML come in the wake of media reports that the SRC had taken decision on many crucial issues through voting when some members representing NC and the UML were not present.
The two-party meeting held after the Constitutional Committee (CC) meeting also discussed the stalled peace process and Maoist dilly-dallying over integration and voluntary retirement of Maoist combatants.
The two parties have decided to continue exerting pressure on the Maoist government to withdraw its controversial decision to legalize conflict-era land dealings arbitrated by the "people´s government".
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