In an important development in Nepal, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba called a meeting of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal and Sanghiya Samajwadi Forum Nepal on Friday to end the current stand-off over National Assembly election. According to sources, the meeting will hold discussions to seek consensus and resolve the impasse regarding the ordinance on National Assembly election that has been stuck at the President’s Office.
Meanwhile, the CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre leaders said the UML Chairperson KP Sharma Oli is likely to become the prime minister of Nepal. They have mooted the concept of ‘one person, one post’ model after unification of their parties. CPN-MC chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal will lead the party after unification.
Left alliance leaders said ‘one person, one post’ model could be applied to all structures of the party from top to grassroot levels, as it would help manage aspirations of leaders of the unified party.
Sources within the CPN said Dahal has told his confidantes that he is ready to lead either the party or the country after the unification. Sources further informed senior leaders of the UML — Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal — were not against Dahal leading the unified party. Many of the leaders believe that the unification of the parties should be a win-win deal. They are of the opinion that separate leaders should lead the party and the government.
The left alliance of the CPN-UML and CPN (MC) had expressed reservations after the government proposed single transferable vote system in the ordinance that was sent to the President for authentication.
On the other hand, Nepal’s Election Commission is also making preparations to announce the number of seats the political parties have secured towards the proportional representation system of the federal and provincial parliamentary elections on Friday.
The Election Commission will give the political parties a week’s time to arrange the inclusive base of the closed list of candidates and endorse the decision from the central committee meeting after the disclosure of the preliminary PR results.