The President, who called a meeting of the political leaders at Shital Niwas, asked Prime Minister Nepal, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala and CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal to reach a within the parameters of the Interim Constitution and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2006, a statement from the Office of the President said. [break]
The President called the meeting despite the Dashain holidays, amidst increasing concern that constitution writing and the peace process may not be completed by the agreed deadlines due to a protracted deadlock over electing a new prime minister. There are less than 100 days left for completing the peace process and there is only seven months´ time for the political parties to finish drafting the new constitution.
"We have agreed in principle to seek solutions to all the problems through dialogue," said Khanal, emerging from the meeting Tuesday morning.
Khanal said that the leaders and the prime minister discussed in the presence of the President all the contentious political issues, including differences over allowing the caretaker government to table the budget.
Similarly, Koirala said that Dahal and Khanal reiterated their demand for the withdrawal of his prime ministerial candidacy by Nepali Congress parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel as a precondition for ending the present deadlock.
"We could not reach consensus on the prime minister´s name in the past. So there is no guarantee that there will be consensus on the next prime minister this time either. The Nepali Congress will not withdraw the candidacy until there is an agreement on the name of the next prime minister and on other political issues," Koirala told journalists.
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