Chairman Regmi was accompanied by Minister for Home Affairs Madhav Ghimire who is also the coordinator of the Government Talks Team and other members of the talks team in the talks held at the Prime Minister´s residence at Baluwatar.[break]
The UML was represented in the discussions by party chairman Jhalanath Khanal, vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam, secretary Bishnu Poudel and party leaders Bhim Rawal and Agni Kharel, among others.
On Monday IEC chairman Regmi held talks with Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala regarding election-related matters. It is said Regmi will continue to hold such discussions with other political parties as well.
Today´s discussions with the UML leaders was focused on the provision in the main law related to the Constituent Assembly (CA) election of the threshold concerning the minimum votes that a party has to garner in order to be recognized as a political party by the Election Commission, the number of CA members to be elected through the proportional election system, party registration and the provision regarding debarring people convicted of crime from standing as candidates in the CA election, among others.
The discussions was mainly focused on creating an environment conducive for the CA election by holding talks with the parties that are opposing the election and are in protest, and fixing the date for the election, it is learnt.
In the discussions with the government officials, UML reiterated its earlier stance on the disputed issues of proposed ordinance related to the CA election.
UML leader Rawal said that discussions were held on the way forward for organizing the election in a systematic manner and other issues like the number of proportional seats, threshold, party registration and objections raised in connection with the Election Act.
He said that since the political parties have agreed to move forward in keeping with the 11-point understanding reached between the three major parties and the Madhesi Morcha and the 25-point ordinance related to removing the constitutional obstacles, the parties cannot backtrack from the 11-point deal.
"To backtrack from the 11-point agreement means delaying the election process and the election itself, and raising new issues over the agreement regarding 240 as the number of proportional seats in the new CA is tantamount to take the entire process to retrogration and delaying the election," Rawal said.
He added that the party was steadfast in its stance of maintaining the one per cent threshold. Rawal also said that they informed the government of the need of correcting the political appointments made by the erstwhile government that are likely to have negative impact on the fairness and credibility of the elections.
They also agreed on the need of holding intensive talks with the parties opposed to the election to ensure the election and that it would be appropriate to fix the election date after making necessary amendments to the Election Act.
The UML stressed on the need of taking the constitutional provisions as the basis while constituting the Constituency Delimitation Commission.
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