Nepal PM appeals opposition to resolve crisis through dialogue

Seeking to resolve the lingering political stalemate in Nepal, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala today appealed to opposition parties, including Prachanda's UCPN-Maoist, to settle the crisis through dialogue and be a part of constitution drafting process.
After the joint meeting of 10 political parties at the Prime Minister's residence in Baluwatar, the leaders appealed for a settlement of the politacal crisis over the drafting of a new constitution in Nepal.
"The meeting of ten political parties has urged the UCPN-Maoist led alliances of the opposition parties to come to the dialogue table and be part of the constitution drafting process, Sunil Manandhar General secretary of CPN-United told PTI.

"We were always prepared to resolve the issue through dialogue and understanding. We were working to towards draft the new constitution through forging agreement among all the political parties so far as possible, if not through enough consensus," a joint statement said.
"No political party which is accountable towards the nation and the people should obstruct the constitution drafting process through the Constituent Assembly (CA)," the statement added.
During the meeting the fringe parties have asked the major ruling parties, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML to show flexibility to incorporate a mixed electoral system in the new constitution, for making the election more inclusive," Manandhar said.

"If the ruling alliances agree on a mixed voting system, direct plus proportionate, some of the 19 party opposition alliance may also back the process of drafting the constitution through voting as proposed by the ruling alliances, he said.

Meanwhile Koirala, who is also the president of Nepali Congress, started holding bilateral, trilateral and multilateral talks with the parties in order to include them in the constitution drafting process, Nepali Congress Spokesperson Dilendra Prasad Badu told reporters.
"Prime Minister has already initiated dialogue. He held conversation with the top leaders (of opposition parties) over telephone since yesterday," he said, adding that Koirala would be holding one-to-one meeting with them from tomorrow.

The UCPN-Maoist led opposition alliance is demanding forging consensus before moving ahead with the process to draft the constitution, whereas the ruling party alliance has started the process of drafting the statute through majority votes.
Nepal has been facing a constitutional crisis for the last six years after the first Constituent Assembly was dissolved without promulgating the Constitution in 2012.
Opposition parties have been demanding ethnic identity- based federal structure in the Constitution which was supposed to be promulgated last week but the deadline could not be met.