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Agreeing Or Not On Disputed Issues Of A New Constitution
By KTM Metro Reporter
April 27, 2012: Leaders of UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML, and UDMF have tentatively reached an agreement on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 on the number of members of Upper and Lower Houses at 60 and 325 respectively; they also agreed that the ratio of proportionate representation (PR) and first-past-the-post (FPTP) would be 45/55 per cent for the House of Representatives. Thus 180 seats are reserved for the FPTP means directly elected representatives and 145 seats for PR means indirectly elected; the total members of federal parliament will be 385; the number of constituencies will be reduced to 180 from the current 240, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of April 25, 2012 writes.
The 60-member Upper Chamber will have 50 elected representatives from the provinces and 10 members nominated by the Cabinet. The 50 seats will be divided equally among the provinces.
"The meeting has made a sketchy agreement on electoral system by fixing tentatively that the Upper House would be 60-member, the Lower House would be 325-member," ‘The Rising Nepal’ quotes NC leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat as informing the reporters after the meeting at the Constituent Assembly building in New Baneshwor. Dr Mahat, however, made it clear that it was not a final agreement, as the parties could change their positions after the internal discussions on these issues.
On Thursday, April 26, 2012, UCPN-Maoist leaders came up with a proposal for 10 provinces following the ethnicity and geography surprising the opposition leaders particularly the NC and CPN-UML and upsetting them at the meeting held at the Constituent Assembly hall in Kathmandu, as the Maoist leaders have firmly stood on their proposal and even said that they were not for compromising this proposal.
NC and CPN-UML leaders in their turn proposed seven provinces and left the names of provinces to be announced later.
UDMF leaders stuck to their demand for ‘one Madhesh one province’.
Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda has made it clear that if leaders of other parties would not accept his 10-province proposal, he would go for 14-province federation for voting at the Constituent Assembly.
Chairman of Constituent Assembly Subhas Nemwang urged the political leaders not to opt for going to voting for the disputed issues rather build a consensus on these issues.
On Sunday, April 22, 2012, the leaders of the four major power centers settled the dispute over judiciary agreeing on a Constitutional Court. On Monday, they resolved the dispute over citizenship agreeing on the principle of equality for issuing citizenship certificates including following the citizenship of mother according to the news posted on ‘The Rising Nepal’.
