The deal signed at 4 am Sunday among the UCPN (M), NC and CPN-UML paved the way for another extension of the Constituent Assembly. The deal was signed by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, NC President Sushil Koirala and CPN-UML Chairman and Prime Minister Khanal. [break]
The United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), which played a crucial role in forcing the prime minister’s resignation, did not put its signature on the deal as its “demands were not clearly addressed in the five-point deal”.
The UDMF lawmakers also abstained from the voting in parliament to register its protest. However, addressing the parliament, Chairman of Madhesi People’s Rights Forum(R) Jaya Prakash Gupta welcomed the parties’ decision to extend the CA term to save the country from an impending calamity.
The hard-won deal lacks specifics and details on crucial issues such as the peace process and the prime minister’s resignation. Thought the deal says Prime Minsiter Khanal will resign and pave the way for the formation of a national consensus government it doesn’t specifically say when he will resign. This lack of clarity is likely to create differences among the political parties and lead to another round of political stalemate.
“As far as I understand, the prime minister must resign immediately. It depends upon what the prime minister and the UML think about it. But I don’t think any attempt by Prime Minister Khanal to cling to the post for a few more days will help the country,” said NC General Secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula.
When reporters asked UML leader and former home minister Bhim Rawal when the prime minister would resign, he walked away without replying.
Similarly, the first point in the five-point deal states that the “fundamental issues” of the peace process will be completed in the next three months but it doesn’t define what constitutes “fundamental issues”.
Soon after the deal was reached among the political parties, parliament amended Article 64 of the Interim Constitution by 504 votes for and 4 against, and extended the term of the CA for the second time. This is the ninth amendment to the Interim Constitution. Parliament began its business at 11:15 pm, 45 minutes before the expiry of the CA deadline, but waited for the next five hours to pass the constitutional amendment.
The parliamentary proceedings were adjourned time and again as negotiations among the parties continued till the wee hours of Sunday. The proceedings were supposed to begin at 8 am Saturday.
Negotiations took a new turn late Saturday when the UDMF leaders gate-crashed the negotiations and put forward their demands, including resignation of the prime minister to pave the way for national consensus.
Earlier, the Nepali Congress had put forward a 10-point condition for the CA term extension, including handover of Maoist arms to the government before May 28.
The major three parties – UCPN (M), NC and CPN-UML – had engaged in a series of negotiations throughout the past week.
Last Thursday the parties had discussed different modalities for handover of the Maoist weapons. But the Maoists backtracked from their position of Friday, saying that the peace process and constitution writing should go hand in hand.
A UCPN (M) standing committee meeting on Saturday morning reiterated that it would not hand over the weapons as demanded by the NC.
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