At a meeting convened by the president at his office on September 30, leaders from major political parties committed themselves to find a solution on ending the deadlock by October 16.[break]
At the meeting, the leaders including UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had told President Ram Baran Yadav that the parties would take necessary decisions in connection to removing political as well as constitutional complications in holding fresh elections for Constituent Assembly (CA).
However, key politicians from major political parties will be out of Kathmandu in the coming days and hopes of holding serious negotiations on finding a solution within the deadline appear slim.
While UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is scheduled to leave for a five-day visit to Belgium on Thursday, Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala has left for far-western districts to attend his party´s functions.
CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal is scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu late evening on Wednesday while another key leader from the same party KP Sharma Oli left for the Americas on Tuesday.
Serious negotiations are unlikely to take place in couple of days because Dahal will leave Kathmandu before Koirala arrives in the capital.
The October 16 deadline is not the first one given by the head of state to leaders from major political parties in this connection. Previously, the same leaders had assured the president that they would find a political solution by mid-September.
CPN-UML Spokesman Pradeep Gyawali believed that the roots of problem lie in the dishonesty of UCPN (Maoist) leaders.
"UCPN (Maoist) party wants to prolong their stay in power under one pretext or the other. Therefore, Dahal deliberately made the commitment to prolong the transitional period and was not honest," Gyawali told Republica.
Gyawali also held opposition parties´ partly responsible saying that the NC and CPN-UML leaders had utterly failed in piling enough pressure upon the ruling coalition. He claimed that this time his party was relatively clear about the road ahead but not the NC.
"Our party and the all our leaders have clearly said that UML will be ready for CA revival just for the purpose of promulgating new constitution only if the parties can resolve the disputes in constitution writing beforehand," he explained. "There is no dispute and confusion in UML."
He claimed that the main opposition NC is yet to make its position clear on the issue. Gyawali also said that the flip-flop position of NC politicians and division in the party made the situation worse. Top NC politicians are sharply divided over the issue on whether to go for CA revival or fresh elections.
While former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and party vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel are lobbying for CA revival, the party president Sushil Koirala is reluctant to reinstate the jumbo body.
However UCPN (Maoist) leader Girirajmani Pokharel said he was still optimistic. "The countdown of the certain days wouldn´t show the complete picture. The situation is optimistic if we evaluate the situation in qualitative way," said Pokharel. He claimed that he became optimistic given that the recent talks, mainly with Koirala, were moving in right direction toward Dahal´s proposal to revive the CA.
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