By Bhadra Sharma, Zhang Jianhua, Xinhua,
Kathmandu : Almost two months have passed after the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, but the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M), which has emerged as the largest political party in the CA, failed to form a new government under its leadership.
The total 25 CA political parties, especially the three big ones like the CPN-M, Nepali Congress (NC) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML), are still undecided on the formation of the new government under the leadership of CPN-M.
“The CPN-M secured a one-third majority in the CA elections. As the largest political party the CPN-M has moral and political rights to form a new government. The new government must be formed under the leadership of our party,” Prabhakar, the deputy commander of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), CPN-M armed force, told Xinhua reporter on Friday.
He claimed that the NC and the CPN-UML were creating obstacles in forming the new government.
The NC, CPN-UML and other regional political parties say that the Interim Constitution should be amended to allow a simple CA majority to oust and form the government, which the CPN-M is against.
From the beginning of the CA elections, the CPN-M has insisted on forming the government under its leadership. Besides this, they had forwarded CPN-M Chairman Prachanda as the new president of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
According to their commitment in the CA elections, they also secured a one-third majority and developed into the largest political party in the CA elections.
On Thursday the CPN-M ultimately gave up its claim for president and proposed to hand over the position of titular head of the state to a “non political” figure.
Prabhakar informed that such non-political parties would be elected from the civil society.
The NC and CPN-UML denied this newly forwarded CPN-M proposal. They insisted on amending the Interim Constitution to allow a simple majority to oust and form the government.
“We are in favor of amending the Interim Constitution. Dissatisfied parties must have the right to oust the existing government. It will be easy for the CPN-M as they can secure a simple majority easily,” CPN-UML CA member Agni Kharel told Xinhua on Friday.
He also said that the CPN-M failed to create a consensus among the parties and address the demands of other dissatisfied parties. “The CPN-M Chairman Prachanda is also speaking against the spirit of consensus politics. Such activities can also create complexities on forming the new government,” he added.
The CPN-M Chairman Prachanda had already warned that they would launch street agitation if other parties create obstruction for forming the new government.
The Civil Society representatives are pointing out the need of a coalition government for the new republic and inclusive government.
“People have asked the political parties to form the new government and create the consensus among the CA parties,” civil society representative Dr. Devendra Raj Pandey told Xinhua.
Stating that various parts of the peace process still remained unsolved in Nepal, he said the peace process must end in a logical way before writing the new constitution. “In this regards, a coalition government is also needed and the parties must be responsible for fulfilling their duty,” Dr. Pandey said.
The single largest party in the CA, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Thursday decided to give up its claim for the post of president, saying that the first president of republican Nepal should be chosen from the civil society. Formerly, the party claimed both posts of the first president and premier of the newly-born republic.
Nepal was declared a federal democratic republic on May 28 by the newly-elected Constituent Assembly.