Maoists backpedal to direct election of president

(Updated with details)

Manifesto said directly-elected prez and ceremonial PM

Bhattarai-headed panel recommended a model with mixed system like in France and Sri Lanka

The party in the CA committee proposed to elect Prez from parliament

Latest model opts presidential system without PM like in US

KATHMANDU, Aug 4: The Unified CPN (Maoist) party has backpedaled on the model for the president´s election. It also decided to drop the idea of a prime minister with a ceremonial role. [break]

Briefing the Constituent Assembly (CA) committee on determining forms of governance on Tuesday, Maoist CA member Top Bahadur Rayamajhi presented his party´s proposal for direct election of the executive president through popular vote.

The UCPN (Maoist) party had originally lobbied for the election of an executive president through the direct vote of the people. But later the party at a meeting of the same CA committee put forth a proposal for election of the executive president from parliament.

"We had earlier opted to elect the president from the House. But now we have decided to go for our original idea as per the decision of our recently-concluded central committee meeting and after consultations with experts," Rayamajhi said at the meeting.

Earlier, the Maoist party had decided to adopt a mixed model where the president is elected from the House to enjoy executive power while the prime minister would have ceremonial authority.

A taskforce of the party headed by Dr Baburam Bhattarai had suggested to the party in the last week of February to adopt a mixed system in which the president will be executive head of the country and the prime minister will have limited authority.

The Maoist leader had described a model similar to that in France and Sri Lanka.

But, in its latest proposal, the Maoist party has proposed a model with all the executive power centralized in the president. The Maoists have done away with the post of prime minister. "Earlier, we became flexible over our model after voices were raised from many quarters saying that an executive president directly elected by the people will not be accountable to parliament and may turn authoritarian," Rayamajhi told myrepublica.com.

But the decision was widely criticized by the general public and experts from different sectors and that led to the CC meet correcting the party´s earlier decision. "Our party got the most votes in the CA election. During the election our manifesto had committed us to electing the president directly by the people. Also, CA members from our party visiting their districts to collect popular feedback had told the people that the party would go for a presidential system. Therefore, our party corrected its earlier decision on going for a mixed system," he further clarified.

Though the Maoist party had proposed a presidential system in its election manifesto, it had also proposed a prime minister with a ceremonial role in parliament.

Rayamajhi argued that the party decided to give full authority to the president, thinking that making the central government more powerful becomes further relevant in a federal system. "Otherwise a federal state might break apart," he added.

As Maoist lawmakers floated the party´s new proposal at the meeting, the CA committee decided to first finalize the policy on central governance-- either a presidential or prime ministerial model, according to Nepali Congress CA member Pushpa Bhusal.

Meanwhile, the committee on restructuring states and distribution of state authority on Tuesday corresponded with all the 25 political parties represented in the CA to submit copies of their proposals along with their concepts and maps and number of states and delineation of boundaries. The committee has asked the parties to submit the concepts and maps by August 9.

A meeting of the committee held on Tuesday said categorically that it will hold no deliberations on the concepts and maps received later than August 9.

thira@myrepublica.com