The conference will be held on September 16 in the presence of 31 parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) and 33 parties, including the Baidya-led Maoist, which are outside the CA. The decision was made after a meeting cross-party taskforce comprising the second-rung leaders of four major political parties ironed out disputes over conference date and reached an agreement to hold the meet before Prime Minister Sushil Koirala’s New York visit scheduled for September 19. Earlier, the meet had become uncertain after the ruling parties and the ones outside the CA pitched conflicting conference dates.

“We reached an understanding on the conference date but the agendas and procedures are yet to be finalised,” said Bhim Rawal, a taskforce member from the UML. He said the conference will be chaired by PM Koirala and organised at Lhotse Hall of the CA building.

Friday’s taskforce meeting, however, could not come up with a decision on conference procedure, its agendas and the number of leaders to attend the meet, among others. Next round of taskforce meeting scheduled for Saturday is expected to reach a decision on the matters as well as ways of incorporating outputs of the conference in the constitution writing process.

So far, the negotiators have informally agreed to discuss both the resolved and disputed issues of the new constitution and preparations are under way to bring all parties within and outside the CA.

The Baidya-led party had boycotted the November 19 CA election alleging that it was a “farce” and it was also supported by the lesser-known 33 parties.

Meanwhile, the agreement has paved the way for the major parties representing in the CA—Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML, UCPN (Maoist), which have not yet reached consensus on whether the President or the prime minister should be made powerful in the new political set-up, ways to delineate federal units—to discuss the issues with the then poll-opposing 33-party alliance.

Ruling parties NC and UML want to seek inputs from parties outside the CA whereas the latter are for promulgating the new constitution as per decisions reached at the conference. “This political conference will not have any negative effects on regular constitution writing process. We want to receive feedback from them (parties outside the CA),” said Krishna Sitaula, NC member in the taskforce.

The Baidya-led party’s Spokesperson Pampha Bhusal demanded that the government should incorporate issues, including the recent decision to sign power deal with India and past agreements, for discussion at the conference. On federalism, the 33-party alliance is preparing to reiterate its position stated during the CA elections of November 19. According to Bhusal, the alliance had given nod to the 14-province model proposed by a former CA committee. Regarding the form of governance, the party stands for directly elected president as executive head and in terms of judiciary, it wants a mechanism wherein judges are selected by a committee comprising elected representatives.

Asked how the party would like to incorporate the conference outputs in statute writing process in the CA, Bhusal did not answer clearly. “As we are outside the CA, it is up to the parties in the CA to decide on the matter,” she said.

Main Highlights

31 parties in CA and 33-party alliance led by Baidya to attend the conference

Key agendas include both resolved and disputed issues of the statute drafting process

PM Koirala to chair the conference

Meet to take place at Lhotse Hall in CA building

CPN-Maoist wants agendas to include govt’s recent decision having long-term impact