The grand old party is, however, firmly against electing the president through popular vote and giving him sweeping executive powers. [break]
An informal meeting of influential NC leaders held at their parliamentary party office on Monday afternoon agreed to show flexibility over its current stance that the country should continue with the current Westminster model of government with a constitutional presidency.
The meeting agreed that the party can compromise for sharing power between president and prime minister, while still giving more power to the prime minister. “We have moved on from our demand for a strictly Westminster model,” said NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi, adding, “In such an arrangement the president will also have some powers and won´t be purely ceremonial.”
The NC leaders have proposed that the president can be provided limited powers such as reviewing bills, appointing ambassadors and playing an active role in formulating and handling the country´s foreign policy while leaving the parliament-elected prime minister as executive head of the country.
The NC leaders also concluded that they cannot accept a system where the president is elected directly by the people. “We are, however, open to discussions on electing the president through an extended electoral college,” he further said.
The ´extended electoral college´ for the election of the president, as proposed by the NC, would include members of the upper and lower houses at the center and members of the various provincial legislatures. The party is open to even include district level representatives of provincial governments for electing the president, according to NC leader Dr Narayan Khadka.
NC leaders conveyed this new flexibility to the other parties at a meeting of leaders of the three major parties held at Singha Durbar later in the evening to forge consensus on system of governance.
The largest party in the CA, Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), has proposed a directly-elected executive president and a prime minister elected by parliament.
The NC has maintained that the idea of an executive president directly accountable to voters is tantamount to giving rise to a dictator as such a person tends to remain accountable to the public only during election that normally takes place after five years.
“This is why we are open to the idea of electing the president through an extended electoral college but not directly by the people. There should be some mechanism to check and balance the president´s power in between,” Nidhi further said.
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