By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Three months after they walked out of the ruling alliance and dealt a blow to elections and the peace process, Maoists in Nepal are set to rejoin the government within 48 hours following a pact to axe the kingdom’s two-century-old monarchy, rebel supremo Prachanda said Monday.
Hailing the breakthrough in deadlocked negotiations Sunday night that saw the seven parties signing an agreement to remove King Gyanendra from the constitution and declare Nepal a federal, democratic republic, Prachanda said at a gathering in the capital Monday that new Nepal was virtually a republic with just a few technicalities left.
With the rebels finally forcing Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to concede their demand for an immediate end to Nepal’s two-century-old monarchy, the Maoist chairman said his party would rejoin the cabinet within 48 hours.
He also said that the central committee of the party would hold a meeting Tuesday to decide on the new ministers.
To clear the decks for the return, the prime minister’s office Monday accepted the resignation of the four Maoist ministers who had quit on Sep 18.
The four former ministers are information and communications minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who was also the spokesman of the ruling coalition, minister for local development Dev Gurung, physical planning and works minister Hisila Yami and women, children and social welfare minister Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma.
The fifth minister in the multi-party cabinet, forest minister Matrika Prasad Yadav, had resigned much earlier citing irreconcilable differences with the prime minister.
Former Maoist minister Gurung told IANS the differences over power sharing had been resolved.
“We are likely to have the same five portfolios,” Gurung said. “In addition, there may or may not be two more ministers of state.”
Gurung said initially the Maoists had said they would take part in the April election from outside since they considered the Koirala cabinet to be “monolithic” and dominated by the premier and his Nepali Congress.
“Both we and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (the second largest party in the government) said power should be shared by the parties. We couldn’t have the prime minister as well as defence, home and finance ministers from the Nepali Congress,” he said.
The marathon seven-hour negotiations Sunday night finally saw the feuding parties agree to form a coordination committee comprising a senior leader from each party.
“All controversial issues will have to be first cleared by the joint committee and then be tabled in the cabinet. After the government agreed to have such a coordinating mechanism, we decided to drop our demand for a restructuring of ministries,” Gurung said.
As parliament convened Monday, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narendra Bikram Nembang withdrew an earlier proposal by the government to amend the constitution.
A new proposal was submitted after Sunday’s agreement to erase any reference to the king and transfer all executive powers to the prime minister.
The new amendment will also pave the way for a modified election system.
Nepal will go to the hustings by mid-April to elect a 601-member constituent assembly instead of the earlier 497 seats.
To pacify the Maoists, who had been clamouring for a fully proportional election, the pact provides for 335 seats – almost 58 percent – to be elected through proportional election.
A total of 240 seats – nearly 42 percent – will be filled on the basis of a straight fight among contestants.
In addition, 26 members will be nominated to ensure representation to marginalized and underdeveloped communities.
However, though the amended constitution will proclaim the Himalayan kingdom a federal democratic republic, King Gyanendra gets a four-month breathing space.
The actual sacking of the king will occur only in April after the twice-deferred constituent assembly election is held.
However, he will continue to have a sword hanging over him with the constitution retaining a provision that says he can be ousted immediately if he tries to sabotage the election, provided two-third of the legislators give their assent.