Nepal: THREE-POINT PACT ENDS STALEMATE
Himalayan News Service (May 29, 2010)
The Constituent Assembly (CA) was elected in the first general election in Nepal in April 2008 with CPN (Maoists) winning the most seats. Much has happened since then but the mandate of the CA has not been completed and its term was coming to an end, which would have caused a major crisis. At the last minute the major parties (Maoists, UML and Congress) reached an agreement to extend the term of CA.
KATHMANDU: The three major parties agreed to extend the term of Constituent Assembly for a year at the eleventh hour after they reached a three-point agreement that requires the Prime Minister to step down at an appropriate time soon.
The agreement does not state when Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal will step down, but states that he will tender his resignation the day the three major parties sign a “package deal”.
According to the three-point agreement signed by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, NC Acting President Sushil Koirala and CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal, the Prime Minister is ready to resign immediately to pave way for the national consensus government.
The three parties have also expressed commitment to embark on the path of consensus to accomplish the remaining work to lead the peace process to a logical conclusion and draft a new constitution.
Emerging from the meeting following an agreement on the premises of CA, NC spokesperson Arjun Narsingh KC said the three parties agreed to extend the CA term by a year and accomplish all the remaining tasks concerning peace process and constitution drafting process mentioned in the peace agreement in a package.
KC added that the parties had ironed out differences on all contentious issues, including formation of national consensus government, power sharing, managing the Maoist combatants and weapons, disbanding YCL’s paramilitary structure and returning the properties seized during the time of conflict to their rightful owners. Standing committee member of UCPN-Maoist Giriraj Mani Pokhrel confirmed that the three parties had inked a three-point agreement. Earlier, PM Nepal had consultations with President Dr Ram Baran Yadav.