The taskforce, which is headed by lawmaker Laxman Lal Karna of Sadbhavana Party, studied the Westminster model and various presidential, prime ministerial and mixed models of governance practiced in the world.[break]
"While we found various types of Westminster and presidential systems in the world, it was only Israel that had earlier adopted a [directly-elected] prime ministerial system. But that country has already stopped practicing that," Karna told Republica. "Similarly, there are various types of mixed models, with power sharing between the president and prime minister."
According to him, they found 41 countries -- including France, Germany, Poland, Sri Lanka and Russia -- practicing various types of mixed models.
Karna, however, said that the taskforce did not make any recommendation to the subcommittee, which is headed by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
"We just did a comparative study and clearly listed the merits and demerits of the different systems," said Karna. "Now the leaders will decide and it will be a deal with give-and-take and compromise at the top political level."
He said the taskforce was not mandated to make recommendations. He also declined to divulge details of their report, saying that members of the taskforce as well as the subcommittee were instructed not to disclose any crucial details.
After being distributed copies of the report, the leaders agreed to study the document, hold discussions within their respective political parties first and discuss it in the subcommittee on November 17.
At the meeting on Monday, Karna handed the report to Dahal after reading out from the three-page synopsis and some highlights of the six-page report.
Khimlal Devkota of UCPN (Maoist), Radheshyam Adhikari of Nepali Congress (NC) and Agni Kharel and Sapana Malla Pradhan of CPN-UML are members of the Karna-led taskforce. All the members are lawyer-turned-lawmakers.
The largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA) -- UCPN (Maoist) -- is for a directly-elected executive president, the NC is lobbying for a Westminster model and the third largest party, UML, is for a directly-elected prime ministerial system.
While leaders from the UML seemed flexible, the Maoists and NC are rigid in their respective stances. Lawmakers and senior officials of the CA who are involved in inter-party talks and are working to resolve disputes in constitution writing believe they will end up with a mixed model -- with sharing of powers between a directly-elected president and prime minister elected from parliament.
Asked if such a mixed model can function in Nepal´s context, a senior leader involved in inter-party talks said there was no meeting point other than a mixed one.
Former prime ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal from CPN-UML and parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel from the NC, among others, are members of the Dahal-headed dispute resolution subcommittee formed under the CC, which is mandated to prepare the first integrated draft of the new constitution.
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