Kathmandu: Nepal’s three main political parties have agreed to hold local elections by April-May and keep the Constitution amendment bill inactive to break the political deadlock over the contentious new statute.
In a meeting held at Premier’s residence yesterday, Prime Minister Prachanda, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML Chairman K P Oli agreed on holding the polls. They have also agreed to keep the constitution amendment bill inactive in order to create an environment for polls.
The Constitution implementation requires the local, provincial and federal polls to be held by Jan 2018.
According to the PM’s secretariat, the leaders also agreed to forge consensus on four other key agendas- Constitution amendment, delimitation of electoral constituencies, passing of election related bills, and deciding on the impeachment motion against Chief Commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority.
With the agitating Madhes-based parties, at whose insistence the amendment bill was introduced, refusing to take ownership and main opposition outright rejecting the amendment proposal and resorting to House obstructions, the government is hard-pressed to resolve the crisis.
Now, amid indications from the Madhes-based parties that they could participate in the polls, major parties have decided to take the country to elections rather than focusing on constitution amendment. The UML has repeatedly said that it will not let the House function unless the government withdraws the bill.
Now, a senior leader from a party in the government said that the UML has expressed readiness to lift House obstruction if the proposal floated during yesterday’s meeting is turned into an agreement.
During the meeting, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba called for holding local polls in the present set-up, saying that elections under the new set-up after demarcating local units could bring further problems.
During the meeting, Prachanda had requested Oli not to continue street protests.
Madhesis, mostly Indian-origin, launched a six-month-long agitation from September last year to February this year in which more than 50 people were killed.
The agitation had also crippled the landlocked country’s economy as supplies from India were blocked.