Yadav gave the parties five more days as UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala, CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) Coordinator Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar expressed their inability to reach consensus in the given time.[break]
The president decided to extend the deadline for the eighth time as the parties failed to forge consensus on the contentious issues, including the leadership of the new government.
“None of the leaders appeared confident about consensus anytime soon. All were visibly frustrated,” said one of leaders present in the meeting with the president.
During the meeting, Maoist Chairman Dahal had told Yadav that the parties were nowhere near agreement even on the option of handing over government leadership to a civil society leader. “Since Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have rejected the proposal outright there is no immediate possibility of consensus on the formation of a national consensus government,” Dahal had said at the meeting.
Talking to media persons after the meeting with the president, UCPN (Maoist) leader Amik Sherchan said the president has asked them to forge consensus at the earliest. “The president has made a serious appeal to the parties to reach consensus within the next five days so that elections can be held by May,” he said.
The parties have lost hope as Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has refused to hand over government leadership to NC President Sushil Koirala, while the NC and UML have refused to join the Bhattarai-led cabinet. “The opposition parties´ refusal to join the Bhattarai-led government has made any deal for consensus elusive,” said a senior leader from a ruling party.
Leaders said the major parties had reached an agreement on all contentious issues, except for joining the Bhattarai-led cabinet. The three major parties had agreed to hold polls on May 13. Likewise, they had agreed to limit the size of CA to 491 with 240 members each elected directly and through proportional representation system and 11 prominent personalities from various fields.
A top leader from the ruling party said they had reached an agreement on filling the vacant positions in the election commission and other constitutional bodies.
“There had been an agreement to jointly ask the president to resolve the constitutional difficulties after the package deal. But as the opposition parties refused to join the Bhattarai-led cabinet, the deal has now become elusive,” he said.
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