Kathmandu, Nepal: It is likely that the formation of the new government would be delayed further, thanks to the futile dispute over the ordinance related to the formation of the National Assembly (NA). The ordinance is stocked at the office of the President since two months on the name of seeking consensus among the major parties.
As the leaders of the ruling head Nepali Congress (NC) and the leftist alliance comprising mainly of CPN-UML and the CPN Maoist Center have clinched on their self-indulgent stands over the issue of ordinance, any amicable solutions are not found yet to form the NA and the new government.
As the ordinance sent by the cabinet is not authenticated by the President Bidya Devi Bhandari, not only the formation of the NA and the new government is delayed but also the distances are being created among the parties.
It is likely that the newly emerged differences among the parties would trigger political as well as constitutional crisis in the country if the parties failed to settle the differences immediately.
The ordinance related to the formation of the National Assembly that includes the provision of single transferable electoral system is pending at the president's office, after the leftist alliance particularly the CPN UML stood against of the electoral system. It is being alleged that the president would not have authenticated the ordinance in the behest of the CPN UML.
Contradicting to the provisions of the ordinance, the UML has demanded direct electoral system instead of the single transferable voting system. The provision demanded by the UML helps the leftist alliance to win all the seats in the National Assembly by keeping the Nepali Congress in bay.
As the issue of authentication of the ordinance delayed the entire process including the formation of the national assembly and the new government, the CPN Maoist Center, an integral part of the leftist alliance, has begun now to backtrack from the stands.
A headquarter meeting of the Maoist Center on Monday decided to find solution to the dispute through negotiation among the parties. It is expected that the decision of the Maoist Center, would compel the UML to backtrack from the rigid stand.
As the existing constitution process does not contradicts with the ordinance forwarded by the cabinet to the office of the president for authentication, the NC has maintained that it won't budge from its stance to ensure single transferable voting system to elect members of the National Assembly.
As the single transferable electoral system is not only important to ensure proportionate inclusion of people from different groups in the National Assembly but also to ensure representation of opposition parties in the upper house other stake holders have also stand in favor of the ordinance stating that the electoral system serves as a watchdog of the government in the presence of the opposition.
The Nepali Congress had also been reiterating the stand even in the meetings with the parties including in the meeting with President Bidya Devi Bhandari.
Going against the stand of the UML to withdraw the ordinance to incorporate the direct electoral system and the urge of the president for political consensus, Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba has repeatedly been clarifying that he would step down as the prime minister only after the formation of the National Assembly under the provision of the single transferable voting system.
Though the ordinance with the provision of single transferable voting system was sent to the office of the president about two months ago, none of the parties had given emphasis to passage the bill waiting the election results to make their stands on the ordinance.
The debate has taken a new height after the election results gave a hope to the leftist alliance that it would win almost all the seats in the national assembly. The leftist alliance, particularly the chair of the UML has blamed the Nepali Congress of changing the rules of the game after the party faced defeat in the elections.
