CPN-M ‘welcomes’ HLPC invite; seeks open talks
Party urges big four to sit for unconditional dialogue
KATHMANDU, JUL 18 -
The CPN-Maoist -led alliance of 33 parties has expressed readiness to hold dialogue with the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) if the four major political parties agree to sit for ‘unconditional talks’.
On Wednesday, the HLPC sent a letter to the CPN-Maoist and its partners, requesting them to come to the talks table to make the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections a success.
Welcoming the official invitation, the CPN-Maoist urged the four parties to accept ‘open negotiations.’ The party said any precondition would take the negotiations nowhere.
“We won’t consider sitting for dialogue unless the conditions are removed,” CPN-Maoist Secretary Dev Gurung told the Post.
The HLPC said it is ready to discuss any issue put forth by the poll-opposing parties, except a change in the government and cancelling the election process.
The dissident forces are scheduled to hold an internal meeting on Thursday to discuss the alliance’s stand.
“We are expecting a positive and encouraging response from theCPN-Maoist ,” said UCPN (Maoist) Vice Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha.
On July 8, the CPN-Maoist had formed a talks team led by its Chairman Mohan Baidya for holding talks with the HLPC and the government. The team was apparently formed without consulting the alliance members. After the 32 parties threatened to form a separate team, Baidya on Monday agreed to incorporate other fringe parties in the talks team and put forth a joint demand.
The alliance has unanimously agreed that they cannot be part of the election process until the four parties change the “ongoing political course.” The CPN-Maoist has been demanding that the non-partisan Khil Raj Regmi government be replaced with a party-led one and that the election process be halted for now.
A Central Committee meeting of the CPN-Maoist has officially decided to boycott the November polls, while it called for the ouster of the Regmi government.
CPN-Maoist Vice-chairman CP Gajurel said the four parties should not put forth any pre-conditions as his party has also decided to hold unconditional talks. “The talks will head nowhere if they come up with pre-conditions. It is meaningless to sit for such talks,” he said.
The CPN-Maoist is under immense pressure from the fringe parties to shun dialogue with pre-conditions. The party, according to Khagendra Makhim, general secretary of the Federal Democratic National Forum, has signed an agreement with the fringe parties that says talks are not possible until and unless the four parties give up on their pre-conditions.
“Some CPN-Maoist leaders are ready for conditional talks, but the alliance has decided that the government should not put forth pre-conditions and should be ready to correct the mistake committed by signing the 11-point and 25-point agreements,” Makhim said. The two agreements had led to the formation of the Regmi-led government.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the HLPC also decided to hold discussions with the Constituency Delimitation Commission (CD) on removing constitutional difficulties in re-marking the constituencies.
“We will hold discussions on Thursday with members of the CDC and reach a conclusion,” NC Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel said.
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