HLPC ready to go distance to woo ‘defiant’ CPN-M Rescheduling the poll date, govt ouster 'non-negotiable' terms

KATHMANDU, JUL 07 -
The High-level Political Committee ( HLPC ) on Saturday said it was ready for holding ‘all-party conference’, reorganising the committee and making necessary amendments to the past agreements reached among the four major parties and the President if the CPN-Maoist expresses commitment to participate in the November 19 election.

The meeting, however, made it clear that the issues of rescheduling the election date and change in the government are non-negotiable conditions. “We are ready to adopt a flexible stance on any issues except the formation of a new government and rescheduling the election,” said NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel after the meeting.

This time around, the committee has shown maximum flexibility on the issues put forth by those parties. The move follows the CPN-Maoist official declaration of boycotting and disrupting the planned November 19 election in the party’s central committee meeting in Pokhara.

The party has been demanding a ‘roundtable conference’ and a government led by political parties as its minimum condition for dialogue. Cross-party leaders say the ‘all-party conference’ is no different from ‘roundtable conference’ as demanded by the CPN-Maoist.  

The HLPC meeting, however, did not specify what it meant by conference of political parties nor elaborated on its agenda and its legitimacy. “The CPN-Maoist is demanding a roundtable conference. So the modality and actual name of such conference will be finalised once discussions are held with the party,” said UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha. The CPN-Maoist wants to cancel the overall election plan and form a new government of political parites,

while its allies are ready to take part in the elections if certain demands are fulfilled.

The Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Nepal (MJFN) led by Upendra Yadav and the Federal Socialist Party Nepal (FSPN) led by Ashok Rai seem ready to go for election but both parties want to end the ‘syndicate of four parties’ and increase the seats under the proportional representation (PR) system.

The HLPC is not united on the issue of increasing the number of seats under the PR system.

The UCPN (Maoist) and Madhes-based parties are in support of it, while the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML have been opposing the idea.

The CPN-Maoist has maintained that talks with the HLPC and the government is possible only if the election process is halted.

The party also states that it is not ready to sit for talks with the HLPC and government but ready for party-to-party talks.

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The CPN-Maoist has said that the party is ready for talks if the four major political forces agree to hold a ‘roundtable conference’ and rethink the two agreements that the latter signed before forming the present election government.

A Central Committee meeting of the party that concluded on July 2 had decided to boycott the upcoming Constituent Assembly elections and at the same time showed its eagerness to hold talks if the ongoing election process is halted.

CPN-Maoist Secretary Dev Gurung said his party was ready for talks with the High-level Political Committee to find an amicable solution. “We have a simple demand, ie the four-party domination should end,” said Gurung.

Earlier, the Mohan Baidya-led party was not ready to hold talks with the committee. “If the High-level Political Committee is called only an alliance of the four parties, we are ready to sit for talks,” said Gurung.

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