President Yadav has extended the deadline for the parties to form a consensus government for the next five days after the earlier deadline expired on Wednesday. [break]Top leaders of UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UDMF had requested him to extend the deadline saying they were close to forging consensus.
Sources at the president´s office said Yadav, who is miffed at the failure of the parties to forge consensus, has asked the parties to agree on all contentious issues within the next five days. This is the third extension of the deadline given by the president to the political parties to find a consensus prime ministerial candidate.
The president has also cautioned the parties that election would not be possible by mid-May if the parties failed to arrive at consensus within the next five days. “The president is worried about the repeated failure of the political parties to forge consensus,” NC President Sushil Koirala told after the meeting with president.
“We will make our utmost efforts to forge consensus. The president is also in favor of consensus among the parties,” said UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal.
UDMF Coordinator Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar claimed that since negotiations were under way the parties would reach a package deal within the five-day deadline. “The four parties will soon reach a package deal. And the new prime minister would also be from among the four parties,” he said.
Current govt should hold polls if there is no consensus: PM´s aide
A close aide to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has argued that the parties should be ready to go for fresh polls if there is no consensus between the parties even within the extended deadline.
The prime minister´s chief political advisor Devendra Paudel made such remarks during an interaction organized at the Reporters´ Club in the capital Thursday. "There is no point in quitting the government unless it is clear what the new government would do," he argued.
Paudel, however, said that Bhattarai is ready to quit the government if there was a package agreement on all contentious issues. He said the opposition parties should be ready to fix a date for fresh polls, make appointments to the vacant posts in constitutional bodies and prepare a draft of new constitution by compiling all the agreed issues.
Paudel said the argument of opposition parties that they would accept Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal rather than Bhattarai is just an attempt to fish in troubled waters.
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