A cabinet meeting on Monday decided to ask the president to pave the way for army deployment. Though the government earlier this week had suggested to the president to endorse the former´s proposal to deploy the army, the president turned it down saying that a constitutional provision doesn´t allow him to do so.[break]
The president was referring to a provision in the Interim Constitution that stated, “Except in the case of deployment of Nepal Army for reasons of natural calamities, the decision made by the Council of Ministers of the Government of Nepal for the deployment of the army shall have to be presented to the special committee prescribed by the Legislature-Parliament within a month of the decision, and be approved accordingly.”
President´s Press Advisor Rajendra Dahal said the president is likely to endorse the government proposal by Tuesday. “The president couldn´t issue it today [Monday] as he is studying the government proposal. The proposal is likely to be endorsed by tomorrow [Tuesday],” Dahal told Republica.
Earlier in the morning, top leaders from major political parties at a meeting of the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) had decided to advise the interim election government to ask the president to remove the constitutional difficulties in connection with army deployment.
As there is no parliament at present, the constituent parties of the HLPC suggested to the government to amend the statutory provision. “We have suggested to the government to forward a proposal to allow army deployment with a provision to endorse the deployment from the parliament within a month of starting of the first House session of the to-be-elected legislature,” said CPN-UML leader Raghuji Pant after the HLPC meeting at New Baneshwar.
The political parties and the government decided to deploy the national army after some of the agitating political parties including CPN-Maoist decided to boycott the upcoming election and disrupt poll activities.
The government has come up with a proposal to form a four-tier security mechanism for the upcoming elections.
According to the integrated security plan prepared by the government, around 62,000 Nepal Army personnel will be deployed as backup force during the CA polls.
Besides, 54,000 personnel from Nepal Police, 22,000 from the Armed Police Force and over 44,000 temporary personnel will be used for election security.
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