The talks couldn´t make any headway as the dissident political party leaders insisted that Chairman of the interim election government Khil Raj Regmi must resign from the post of chief justice, while members of the government talks team termed the demand irrelevant.[break]
"Today´s talks couldn´t reach any conclusion as the government team joined the dialogue without doing any homework on the demands that we had submitted during the previous talks," Chairman of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF) Upendra Yadav, who is also coordinator of the alliance, told Republica.
The constituent parties of the Forum had stood against the proposal to form an election government under the leadership of a sitting chief justice. The alliance, immediately after the formation of the Regmi-led government, had announced a boycott of polls to be conducted by the government of bureaucrats.
The government assured the alliance leaders that they can address most of their 13 demands. "The demand for Regmi´s resignation in his capacity as chief justice remained the major thorny issue," a leader of the alliance, Parshuram Tamang, told Republica.
Minister for Information and Communications Madhav Prasad Paudel said they tried to persuade the dissident party leaders that there was no point insisting on Regmi´s resignation as CJ.
"He became head of the government on the ground of his being chief justice. And now he has completely stopped working in the capacity of chief justice and has been dedicating himself only to holding the elections," Paudel told Repbulica. "So the demand for his resignation as CJ has already become irrelevant."
He said the government is positive toward most of the demands on the table.
"The work of distributing citizenship certificates and updating voter registration has already begun and we are holding talks with the election commission with regard to delineating the electoral constituencies based on the latest census, among other issues, as per their demands," explained Paudel.
Regmi´s resignation as chief justice, dissolution of the high level political committee which represents the four major political forces, fresh delineation of electoral constituencies and consensus on the fundamental principles of the new statute comprise their major demands. The constituent parties of the alliance have announced they will participate in the election only if these demands are addressed.
Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF), National Madhes Socialist Party (NMSP) led by Sharat Singh Bhandari, Tamsaling Nepal Rastriya Dal (TNRD), Rastriya Janamukti Party, Khambuwan Swayatta Rajya Parishad, Janamukti Party Nepal and Nepal Shanti Samaj Party are the constituent parties of the Yadav-led alliance.
The government last month formed a three-member talks team headed by Minister for Home and Foreign Affairs Madhav Ghimire, with a mandate to negotiate with the dissenters. Two other ministers, Paudel and Bidyadhar Mallik, are members of the team.
The team talked to another dissident party, the Ashok Rai-led Federal Socialist Party, on Wednesday.
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