Regmi warns parties against further delay

Says govt might take a decision on its own



KATHMANDU, June 9: Expressing strong dissatisfaction over repeated failure of the major parties to strike a deal on key contentious issues related to fresh Constituent Assembly (CA) election, the government on Saturday warned of taking a“ ´appropriate decisi”n´ on its own should the parties fail to reach an agreement soon.

At a meeting held with the top leaders of UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) at Baluwatar Saturday morning, Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi drew attention of the top leaders to the government"s ultimatum to parties forge consensus on the disputed issues by Friday. [break]



Regmi warned that the government would be forced to take a“ ´appropriate decisi”n´ if the parties fail to strike an agreement on key issue“ ´anytime so”n´, according to sources.



Regmi made such remarks after the top leaders apprised him that efforts were still under way to reach consensus“ ´Given the time constraints, you should settle all the issues at the earliest. The government cannot wait indefinitel”,´ Regmi"s press advisor Bimal Gautam quoted him as saying at the meeting.



Regmi and other ministers present at the meeting held at the former"s official residence in Baluwatar had inquired party leaders about the delay in forging consensus. They had also asked if there would be consensus if the provision related to eligibility threshold for seats under proportional quota is removed altogether.



Sources said the government is mulling forwarding the election related ordinance to the Office of the President for endorsement and announcing the date for CA election if parties fail to reach an agreement within the next few days“ ´Regmi is learnt to have given this hint during the meeting today [Saturday”,´ said an NC leader.

The leaders of the major parties while apprising the government"s talks team of their differences had assured Regmi that they would reach an agreement in another round of High Level Political Committee (HLPC) meeting scheduled later in the evening. However, the HLPC meeting ended inconclusively as NC and UML stood in favor of threshold while the Maoist and UDMF opposed the idea.



According to NC Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel, NC proposed a threshold of 0.8 percent votes and one elected candidate to be eligible for seats under the proportional quota“ ´We have proposed a middle path solution for resolving differences over the threshold provision. But the Maoists and Madhesi parties are for completely removing the provision of threshol”,´ said Poudel, adding that he is not optimistic about another round of HLPC meeting scheduled for 5 pm Sunday yielding a positive result.



As there was no consensus between the parties on disputed issues, Maoist leaders had suggested to the government to take a decision o“ ´minor technical issu”s´, such as the threshold provision, on its own. “



´We even proposed at the meeting to ask the government to take necessary decision on the issu”s,´ said UCPN (Maoist) Vice Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha.

However, NC and UML, according to Shrestha, rejected the proposal outright. Talking to media persons after the HLPC meeting, UML leader Raghuji Panta sai“, ´We all agree that election cannot be held unless there is consensus between all the four parties on poll related issu”s,´ said Panta.



Top NC leaders divided over threshold provision

As the debate over eligibility threshold continues, top NC leaders seem divided on the issue. While NC President Sushil Koirala is firm in his position on eligibility threshold, party senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba seems ready to be flexible on the issue.



During his meeting with Koirala on Saturday, Deuba suggested to Koirala that NC should be ready to give up its stance on eligibility threshold to help the government announce poll date.



According to Bimalendra Nidhi, Deuba told Koirala that NC should create atmosphere for government to announce election date at the earlies“. ´We must be prepared to relinquish our stance on eligibility thresho”d,´ Nidhi quoted Deuba as saying.

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