Despite marathon talks and rounds of meetings, the top leaders failed to agree on a name to head the proposed constitutional body that is mandated to offer suggestions to the Constituent Assembly (CA) on transforming the country into a federal system.[break]
The ruling UCPN (Maoist) proposed human rights activist Padma Ratna Tuladhar or Manik Lal Shrestha as head of the commission and other ruling parties from the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) leaders were quick to second the Maoist proposal on Tuladhar.
But Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML leaders stood against the Maoist proposal.
NC leaders proposed Kedarbhakta Mathema, Kul Chandra Gautam, Krishna Khanal or Bimal Koirala for the post and the CPN-UML recommended Ganeshman Gurung or Pitambar Sharma.
UML-proposed Gurung and Sharma were okay for the NC as well and the UML leaders didn´t object to the NC-proposed candidates either. But leaders from both sides -- NC and UML -- were not agreeable to the Maoist proposal.
"Though Tuladhar is a respected civil society leader and human rights defender, federalism doesn´t fall into the area of his expertise. The commission requires an expert in federalism as its head," a NC leader told Republica when asked why Tuladhar was not okay for the NC.
Also, the NC and UML leaders argued that both Tuladhar and Shrestha -- who are in their seventies and eighties -- were not fit for a post that requires rigorous and extensive work, given the gravity of the issue and time constraints.
According to participants of the meetings, Maoist leaders weren´t ready to accept the candidacy of renowned sociologist Gurung and noted geographer Sharma even as NC and UML leaders jointly pushed for their nomination.
"Though they didn´t furnish any logic against the candidacy of Gurung and Sharma, they claimed that the person to head the body must have a firm commitment to federalism but the Maoist and Madhesi leaders were skeptic about them," said a UML leader present at the meeting.
Leaders from both the ruling sides -- UCPN (Maoist) and UDMF -- had floated similar proposals and were seconding each other´s opinions during the talks. "Maybe they had already reached an understanding over the matter before coming to the meeting," guessed the UML leader.
The candidacies proposed by Maoist and Madhesi leaders indicates that they still want to push for an ethnic-based federal system while the NC and UML candidates are those that advocate federating the country on the bases of both the identity as well as economic viability of the proposed provinces.
According to a UML leader, UDMF leaders were also planning to propose Krishna Hachhethu, a staunch advocate of ethnic-based federalism, as head of the commission before they decided to back Maoist candidate Tuladhar.
"Discussion is still going on. We are almost in the final stage and we just need to click the final decision which we shall do tomorrow (Tuesday)," UML Chairman and former prime minister Jhalanath Khanal told Republica while emerging from the talks at Singha Durbar.
Maoist leader Gopal Kirati said his party proposed Tuladhar or Shrestha as coordinator of the commission. "Tuladhar is our first priority," he said.
He said NC proposed Koirala and Mathema as coordinator. Kiranti also informed that the UML proposed Gurung´s candidacy.
According to Kirati, the NC proposed an 11-member commission at the meeting. But later the leaders agreed not to exceed nine members. Of the total nine members, two each will be appointed from the three major political parties -- Maoist, NC and UML -- and two others from UDMF, besides nominating one coordinator acceptable to all.
Asked about the criteria set by the parties, Kirati said the Maoists and UDMF were for nominating a coordinator who would be committed to federalism and has a clear vision on the matter.
"But the NC and UML have been giving preference to academic qualifications and authorship of books as criteria," said Kirati.
He said the members will be nominated only after finalizing the coordinator.
Arjun Narsing KC of NC said they have narrowed down the names of the proposed candidates and he was optimistic about finalizing the matter at the next round meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning.
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