Baidya alliance seeks fresh talks with four major parties

KATHMANDU, Sept 29: As parties prepare to go to polls even without participation of the agitating political parties, the 33-party alliance led by CPN-Maoist) has urged the four major political parties to sit for fresh negotiations. [break]



Issuing a press statement on Sunday, the agitating alliance has urged the major parties to take fresh initiatives for consensus. “There is no alternative to drafting a new constitution after forging national consensus to resolve current problems facing the country,” said a statement issued by CPN-Maoist Secretary Dev Gurung on behalf of the agitating alliance.



The alliance in the statement said they had floated a four-point demand while withdrawing some of their original demands. The agitating alliance said that the four major parties had pushed the country to the brink of conflict by rejecting their four-point demand even as a majority of political parties had accepted their demands.



While accusing the four major parties of making a historical blunder by rejecting the four-point demand, the alliance has also taken strong exception to the decision of four major parties to deploy the national army for poll security. “It would be a huge mistake to deploy army for election,” said the statement.



The agitating alliance also reminded that Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), which is an integral part of the Interim Constitution 2007, does not have any provision that allows deployment of the national army for polls. They have also argued that the attempt to deploy army in the integrated security plan could eventually invite military rule.



This comes a day after the agitating CPN-Maoist sent a letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging the latter to ask Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi to resign as chief justice. CPN-Maoist Chairman Mohan Baidya, party Vice-chairman CP Gajurel and Secretary Dev Gurung had handed over the letter to UN Resident Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick at a meeting between the two sides held in Lalitpur, Saturday evening.



Leaders of the CPN-Maoist, the breakaway faction of the UCPN (Maoist), argued that the decision to deploy the national army during election would be a blatant violation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)-2006, which paved the way for then underground Maoist party to join mainstream politics.

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