Leaders from both the sides said that the negotiations have been creating grounds conducive to polls.
“The negotiation is moving in a positive direction and creating a very good environment for the coming election because they [agitating parties] have shown readiness to participate in the election,” a member of the government talks team and Minister for Information and Communications Madhav Poudel told media persons after the talks held at Babarmahal on Friday. According to him, the government team urged the agitating political parties to participate in the polls scheduled for November 19. “They are positive about our request for participation in the polls,” said Poudel.[break]
Also, CPN-Maoist Secretary Dev Gurung, who led the talks team from the agitating political parties, said the talks were positive. “In today´s talks with the government team, we were basically focused on some policy issues and procedural subjects,” said Gurung.
Both Paudel and Gurung claimed that the next round of talks between the two sides scheduled for Sunday will be decisive.
Gurung said that they didn´t enter into political agendas as negotiations over major contentious political issues would be held with the high level political committee represented by top leaders from the major political parties.
According to Mani Thapa, a member of the talks team from the agitating alliance, who is also the chief of the Revolutionary Communist Party Nepal, the government assured them that it would create favorable environment for them to participate in the polls. “The negotiations today concluded on a positive note because the government agreed to hold an all-party round table meeting to discuss the issues,” he said. “Also, the dialogue on other demands has been progressing.”
It is the second formal talks between the government talks team and Mohan Baidya-led alliance of dissenting parties. The government formed a three-member talks team led by Home Minister Madhav Ghimire and the Baidya-led alliance formed a talks team led by CPN-Maoist Secretary Gurung. The agitating alliance´s 18-point demand includes dissolution of the present chief justice-led government and deferral of the polls scheduled for November 19.
HLPC had earlier on Thursday reached a six-point political agreement with another alliance of agitating political parties led by Upendra Yadav of the Madhesi People´s Rights Forum Nepal.
They agreed to increase the total number of CA members to 585 and to increase the number of seats to be allocated under the proportional representation (PR) system. As per the agreement, they decided to allocate 58 percent of the total seats under the PR system and 42 percent under the first-past-the-post electoral system.
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