KATHMANDU, Feb 22: Hailing the announcement of the local election date, major political parties have vowed to make the polls a success.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, at an all-party meeting held at the parliament building Tuesday, received a positive response to the government’s decision to hold local polls on May 14.
However, the agitating Madhes-based parties boycotted the all-party meeting to protest the government’s move to hold local polls without addressing their grievances.
“I found broad consensus among all political parties at the meeting for holding local polls.
Most of the parties have a similar stance that the Madhes issue should be solved by any means, but dispute remains whether it should be settled through endorsement of the amendment bill in parliament or some other way,” Prime Minister Dahal told media after the meeting.
Stating that the discussions had initiated a positive environment among political parties, Dahal also said the constitution amendment process will move forward from Wednesday.
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“The amendment proposal will move forward in parliament from tomorrow,” he reiterated.
Emerging from the meeting, ruling coalition partner Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba said the main opposition CPN-UML will also come on board the amendment bill when the time comes to vote in parliament.
“All political parties appreciated the poll date announcement and a majority of parties also appeared in favor of the amendment proposal. I hope the opposition UML will also vote for the amendment proposal when it comes to a vote in the House,” said Deuba.
However, UML Chairman K P Oli rejected the chances of UML paving the way for the amendment bill in parliament. The UML has warned it will resume House obstruction if the government brings the amendment bill into parliamentary business, which had been shelved following protests from the opposition parties.
“All parties including the opposition welcomed the decision of the government to announce the poll date. Madhes-based parties will also come on board the elections,” said Oli in a brief chat with media after the meeting.
According to party leaders attending the meeting, Prime Minister Dahal and NC President Deuba had stressed the UML should allow the amendment bill to be put to a vote in the House. “But the UML chairman and other leaders rejected this outright, stating that it was meaningless to put the bill to a vote as it is certain to fail,” CPN (Samyukta) leader Ganesh Shah told Republica.
UML chief whip Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal said the party will not allow the amendment bill to be discussed in parliament unless the agitating parties make a commitment to participate in local polls even if the amendment proposal fails during voting.
Chairman of Madhesi People’s Rights Forum Democratic Bijay Gachchhadar said that his party welcomes the local polls. “The amendment proposal should be revised and endorsed from parliament, bringing the agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front on board the elections. Otherwise they might not accept the elections,” he said.
Rastriya Prajatantra Party Chairman Kamal Thapa said that the party has urged the government to take the consent of the Madhes-based parties over the amendment bill, adding that it would be counter-productive to move the amendment bill forward without their consent.
Leaders from the ruling and opposition parties present at the meeting suggested to the government to implement the Local Level Restructuring Commission report without dilly-dallying. “We also suggested the government decide the number and boundaries of local units at the earliest as this is a must for timely local elections,” said RPP Chairman Thapa.
Opposition party leaders had urged the government not to make any significant changes in the number and boundaries of local units as that would affect the polls. “We suggested to the government to solve the problems with local level restructuring through political consensus, if any such emerges, as the commission’s mandate is yet to expire,” said UML’s Dhakal.
Madhes-based parties boycott all-party meeting
Various 11 Madhes-based political parties boycotted the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Dahal on Tuesday, as a move to oppose the poll date announcement.
Leaders of Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN), Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), Shadbhawana Party, Tarai Madhes Shadbhawana Party and fringe Madhes-based parties didn’t appear at the all-party meeting.
“We have decided to boycott the parliament meetings and all-party meetings as we protest the government’s move to announce local polls without addressing the grievances of the Madhesi people,” said Rastriya Madhes Samajbadi Party General Secretary Keshav Jha.
Some fringe parties including Nepal Janata Dal and Tharuhat Tarai Party Nepal also boycotted the meeting, supporting the UDMF protest. The agitating parties took out a torch rally on Tuesday to protest the local poll date announcement.
