He said the parties should also be ready to go for a referendum, if needed, to decide on some basic principles to be adopted in the new constitution. "Let´s decide whether the Constituent Assembly (CA) is for people´s constitution (of communist model) or a democratic one. If we can´t do it from the CA, let´s go for a referendum to take the decision," Paudel said at an interaction with lawmakers at Singha Durbar on Tuesday. [break]
He said there was no point in holding rounds of discussions on other contents of the statute without first determining the model of the new constitution. "Otherwise, we will always be in confusion," he said.
Speaking at the same program, CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal urged Paudel, who is also the NC´s prime ministerial candidate, to withdraw his candidacy and pave the way for national consensus.
"I request the NC to pull out from this never-ending race," he said.
Khanal urged the NC leaders to not doubt the three-point agreement reached between the UCPN (Maoist) and UML. He said it was signed with an objective to forge a broader consensus and that it was not planned against any other party.
Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, however, didn´t attend the interaction, which was convened by a group of lawmakers from the UCPN (Maoist), NC and the UML with a view to press top leaders to expedite the statute drafting process.
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