According to Vice-chairman of the Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) Brikheskh Chandra Lal, a meeting of the Madhesi alliance held at central office of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) in Sanepa on Saturday concluded that the political parties should reach a package deal in order to conduct new elections for Constituent Assembly (CA) by mid May and to institutionalize federal republic structure in the country. [break]
At a time when major opposition Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML has made it clear that they would not join the present caretaker government-led by Baburam Bhattarai, UDMF has floated several options for the formation of a new government.
As the first option, the party has proposed that the present caretaker government be transformed into a national consensus government.
Second, the Madhesi alliance has proposed forming a national consensus government-led by a leader from within the Federal Democratic Republican Alliance (FDRA). FDRA is an alliance of around two dozen parties, including UCPN (Maoist) and five ruling Madhesi parties associated with UDMF.
According to the proposal, the newly elected CA must endorse the provisions of the new statute agreed between the political parties in the erstwhile CA.
UDMF has proposed that the reports prepared by the erstwhile CA committee on state restructuring and distribution of power and then State Restructuring Commission (SRC) be tabled in the new CA in its original form.
Then CA committee on state restructuring and distribution of power had recommended 14 federal states and a majority members of SRC had suggested forming 10 states.
UCPN (Maoist), Madhes-based parties and even indigenous and Madhesi leaders from Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML had stated that formation of 14 or 10 federal states would be acceptable to them while NC and CPN-UML had rejected both the proposals.
UDMF has also proposed that the term of newly elected CA be fixed at five years and be extended as parliament only after promulgation of the new statute. The Madhesi alliance has demanded new CA polls by mid May.
"There should be a constitutional provision that would automatically relieve the prime minister if he fails to conduct polls on time," reads the press statement issued by UDMF.
Similarly, UDMF has proposed to give continuity to 240 directly elected seats for the new CA and determine the number for proportional seats through consensus between the parties.
Likewise, the Madhesi alliance has stated that the appointments to the vacant positions in the constitutional bodies should also be finalized through political consensus. UDMF has also stressed the need for accomplishing the remaining tasks of peace process.
Senior Vice-chairman of MPRF-D Rameshwor Raya Yadav said they took the decision for the sake of federal republic and Madhesi causes.
Another senior Madhesi leader said that they decided to stand with groups in favor of identity-based federalism stating that NC and CPN-UML are not in favor of identity-based federalism.
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