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KATHMANDU, JUN 10 -
A High-level Political Committee (HLPC) meeting on Sunday ended without making any headway, as the four major political forces stuck to their guns. The provision of threshold and eligibility of candidates running in the new Constituent Assembly elections were the sticking points.
The proposed electoral ordinance has it that those parties securing less than one percent of the total votes will be ineligible to secure seats under the proportional representation electoral system. Dissatisfied with HLPC’s repeated failure to resolve the thorny issues, the Interim Election Government on Saturday had warned of unlocking the deadlock on its own.
Month-long efforts to forge consensus on the threshold provision have came a cropper so far. “The parties are continuing to stick to their previous stances. So today’s meeting too yielded nothing,” said CPN-UML leader Raghu Panta emerging from the meeting.
In the meet, UCPN (Maoist) and Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha remained adamant about removing the threshold provision, while Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML) stood in favour of the EC-formulated provisions of one percent threshold and barring crime convicts from contesting the elections and disclosing property details of candidates.
NC and UML believe representation of ‘unwanted smaller parties’ would affect the new constitution writing process. “We [Maoists and Madhes based parties] proposed the committee head to mandate the government to settle the threshold dispute. But he [Khanal] did not accept the proposal,” said UCPN (M) Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha.
The Maoist and Madhes parties are likely request the government to move ahead even if HLPC chief UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal does not support their proposal. In their bid to follow the middle path for consensus on threshold, NC and UML had earlier proposed the Maoists to accept 0.6 percent threshold. However, talks to that effect proved futile when the Maoists and Madhes parties inclined towards the electoral laws enforced in the 2008 CA elections. “We ruled out their proposal to reduce the threshold percentage. The new CA elections should be conducted on the basis the previous CA Acts,” said Shrestha. He argued that the threshold provision is against the 11-point agreement signed before forming the Khil Raj Regmi-led non-political government.
The government, which wants to announce a poll date after promulgating the ordinance to amend the CA Member Act-2008, is awaiting HLPC’s unanimous decision. “We are really in trouble as the parties continue to disagree on the threshold provision. This has delayed our plan to announce the poll date and expedite preparations in full swing for the CA polls in November,” said government spokesperson Madhav Poudel.
The Election Commission (EC) has already recommended the government to announce November 14 as the CA poll date. With the proposed poll date still five months away, other crucial issues like formation of a Constituency Delineation Commission (CDC) and formulation of electoral by-laws are yet to be finalised.
Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety said a report on the proposed CDC has to be tabled at the EC two months before the poll date. “If that doesn’t happen, our plan to hold to the polls in November might be affected as all key electoral activities like fixing polling centre, mobilising logistics,” said Uprety.
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