The leaders reached the agreement during a discussion on the preliminary draft report prepared by the Constituent Assembly (CA) committee on determining form of the legislative body at Singhdurbar on Wednesday.[break]
However, they failed to suggest whether there should be a bicameral or unicameral parliament at the central level, which is one of the thorniest issues.
“We decided to discuss the issue of federal parliament at a meeting of the top leaders on Thursday,” Maoist leader Dev Gurung told reporters after the meeting.
Maoist leader Gurung, Nepali Congress (NC) leader Ramesh Lekhak and CPN-UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari, among others, attended the meeting on Wednesday.
Determining the form of legislature in provinces, however, wasn´t a complex issue as the parties while preparing the committee´s thematic report had already agreed to have a unicameral parliament in the provinces. But the question was added only after some lawmakers, during deliberations on the thematic report at the CA meeting, demanded that new statute ensure bicameral parliament in provinces as well.
Leaders at the meeting decided to deal with other disputes in the thematic report later as they can be determined only after finalizing the model of parliament at the central level.
The preliminary draft proposal submitted by the thematic committee envisions a bicameral legislature at the center and unicameral legislature in the provinces. However, the UCPN (Maoist) and the Madhesi People´s Rights Forum had registered notes of dissent against the proposal. Maoists have proposed a unicameral legislature at the center. Similarly, the MPRF has proposed that the national assembly should incorporate representatives from the provinces.
The meeting on Wednesday failed to suggest the minimim age for citizens to be eligible for exercising voting rights. Maoists are for determining the 16 year as the minimim age while NC and UML, among other parties, are for setting 18 as the minimin age for citizens to be able to exercise their voting rights.
The meeting of the taskforce headed by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is scheduled for Thursday. NC Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Paudel, UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal, MPRF Chairman Upendra Yadav, Nepal Workers and Peasants´ Party Chairman Narayanman Bijukchhe and lawmakers Prem Bahadur Singh and Rukmini Chaudhary are members of the high-level taskforce.
On Tuesday, the high-level taskforce had sorted out nine of the 11 disputes in the preliminary report prepared by the CA thematic committee on determining the system of governance. The taskforce, however, couldn´t determine the system of governance -- executive presidential or prime ministerial -- and electoral system to be adopted in the new constitution.
The taskforce has a list of around 220 disputes to resolve in eight of the 11 thematic reports. It has an October 24 deadline to submit a report to the meeting of 27 political parties after settling or narrowing down differences. The preliminary reports will then be forwarded to the Constitutional Committee (CC), which is entrusted with preparing an integrated draft of the statute incorporating all the 11 thematic reports.
The parties are yet to forward eight of the 11 thematic reports to the CC. The CC has demanded at least a month´s time to prepare the integrated draft.
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