By IANS
Kathmandu : Living up to its image of being unable to take quick decisions due to constant bickering among coalition partners, Nepal's government Thursday failed to announce a new date for the stalled election and said it would form a committee to reach a consensus.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and his ministers were expected to arrive at a fresh date after a cabinet meeting Thursday but failed to reach a consensus yet again.
At the end of the meeting, Information and Communications Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who is also the government spokesperson, told the media the new date could be announced at the next cabinet meeting, scheduled to be held Sunday.
In April, after the Maoists joined the seven-party ruling alliance, it was announced that the constituent assembly election – which would put the 238-year institution of monarchy to vote and is expected to finally bring peace and stability to the Himalayan country – would be held on June 20.
However, the poll had to be postponed after the Election Commission said it needed more time to make arrangements and the government needed to improve the law and order situation in the country, especially in the Terai plains, where nearly 90 people have been killed this year in violence.
The postponement necessitated a change in the new constitution that had pledged to hold elections by June.
This month, after over six weeks of impasse in parliament, the house finally passed the amendment and agreed to hold the election in November.
Though the Election Commission had recommended a poll date in the first week of November and the government promised it would be held latest by the second week, no concrete date has been announced so far, causing Maoist leaders to express fears that the poll may not be held at all.
The cabinet meeting, meanwhile, agreed how a committee formed to oversee the seven cantonments where Maoist combatants have been confined would operate. The panel is headed by Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel.
The government has also decided to withdraw cases against 19 Maoist prisoners and release them.
When the rebels signed a peace pact with the then ruling alliance last year, the government had agreed to free all Maoist prisoners of conscience who were illegally arrested and imprisoned by the previous regimes.