Maoists’ demand puts Nepal polls in doubt

The interim constitution, prepared by the coalition partners including the Maoists, provides for election of 240 members of the constituent assembly on first-past-the-post system, another 240 under the PR system and 17 to be nominated by the cabinet.

Koirala asked the Maoists not to insist for this “impractical and dishonest” precondition with only about a week left for the nomination process to begin. But the seven-party meeting that Koirala called ended without any solution. To make things worse, 87 Maoist members of Parliament belonging to the Maoist-led groups gave a notice to the Parliament Secretariat demanding that a session be called so that they could move a resolution for declaring Nepal a republic and switching to the PR system of election.

This means that Maoists are not going to submit the list of their party’s candidates as asked by the Election Commission (EC). “We cannot go to the polls without PR system being accepted as the sole election model,” said C P Gajurel, party’s central committee member.

“We are reviewing the situation,” chief election commissioner Bhojraj Pokhrel told The Indian Express.

Meanwhile, the EC on Friday recognised Nepal Sadhbhavana Party (Anandi Devi) as the real party. That means Koirala will have to drop one of his ministers, Rajendra Mahato, who headed the party's splinter group, from the cabinet.