Nepal impasse on National Assembly election continues as the five-party meet on Friday remained inconclusive. The Nepali Congress and the left alliance refused to budge from their respective stands on National Assembly Election Ordinance.
Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba called the 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.
Prime Minister Deuba had called the meeting to resolve differences over some provisions of the ordinance that the government has forwarded to the President.
In the recently held elections to the House of Representatives in Nepal, only five parties could garner the three per cent vote share to secure the status of “national party”. The ordinance related to formation of the upper house is currently in the President’s Office awaiting political consensus.
The left alliance, with its landslide victory in the federal parliamentary and provincial assembly elections, urged Prime Minister Deuba to withdraw the ordinance as it lacks any political consensus which was rejected outright on the ground that the President cannot censure the ordinance forwarded by the executive.
The Nepali Congress leaders are of the opinion that the federal parliament would not get its complete shape without election of the upper house.
“The President cannot stop the ordinance. The UML and the Maoist Centre cannot go against it,” NC leader Ram Chandra Poudel said after the meeting.
The left alliance chairman KP Sharma Oli on the other hand refused to accept the ordinance as some provisions of it are unconstitutional. The left alliance leaders also urged Deuba to clear the way for new government without delay by respecting the people’s mandate. The PM responded that he was ready to hand over power once the final election results are out.
Two Madhes-based parties, however, agreed to the proposed electoral system.