The decision was taken as top leaders of the three political parties came under pressure from various sides to take the voting process in the Constituent Assembly (CA) ahead only after holding talks with the disgruntled parties that have been boycotting the constitution making process for some days now."Though it is not certain that the agitating political parties will be ready to sit for talks, the three-party meeting has decided to put in maximum efforts to that end until Sunday morning," UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha told Republica.
The decision has come although the CA secretariat had already made all preparations for conducting clause-wise voting on the new constitution starting Friday.
As per the secretariat's plans, top leaders of the major political parties were scheduled to address the CA meeting before commencing the vote.
But the hours-long three-party meeting held at the prime minister's official residence at Baluwatar on Friday decided to delay the voting and reach out to the agitating sides.
The top leaders rescheduled the CA voting although most of the NC and UML lawmakers airing their views at the CA meeting had strongly objected to any delay in the CA process.
Some of the UCPN (Maoist) lawmakers, while addressing the meeting, suggested to the top leaders to hold talks with the agitating sides so that the new constitution would have broader support.
However, NC and UML lawmakers, including Bishal Bhattarai, Ram Krishna Yadav, Ananda Dhungana, Tarini Dutta Chataut, Bhim Acharya, Chandra Bhandari, Amar Bahadur Thapa, Kamala Ghimire, Ramhari Khatiwada and Guru Burlakoti, emphasized that the CA process must not be halted under any pretext.
They claimed that there was no point holding up the ongoing CA process just because one group of people has so demanded.
"Out of the total of 119 constituencies in the Tarai, only 11 seats were won by the Madhes-based parties that have boycotted the ongoing CA process," said UML lawmaker Bhattarai. "So, 13 percent can't hold this House hostage against the interests of 87 percent of lawmakers."
NC's Bhandari said 53 NC lawmakers, 36 from UML and 12 from UCPN (Maoist) -- all representing Tarai districts -- want to take the CA procedures forward. "These lawmakers from the Tarai districts are with you [top leaders]. So, you don't need to falter in taking this process ahead," said Bhandari.
NC's Khatiwada held the agitating political parties responsible for the failure to reach any agreement with regard to settling the ongoing political deadlock.
"The prime minister of Nepal has thrice made formal calls for talks to the agitating political parties so far. The largest three political parties of this country have made a joint appeal for talks. But they haven't responded," said Khatiwada. "The prime minister of which country do they [agitating parties] want to call them for talks?"
The major parties had directed their lawmakers to compulsorily attend the CA meeting in time and not miss the voting process under any pretext.
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