KATHMANDU, JUL 23 -The parliament is conducting a runoff election for the post of prime minister on Friday afternoon notwithstanding after Wednesday’s election failed to fill the void created after Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal stepped down.
UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party Leader Ram Chandra Poudel are vying for the hot seat in the re-election today after UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal pulled back at the last moemnt as per his party decision.
However, none of the contesting parties—NC and the Maoist—is hopeful about garnering a majority (300 votes) in today’s runoff election.
Hopes have almost died as neither of the candidates has formed a new equation to gain the required majority.
If today’s election fails, the parties are likely to schedule the next polls around mid-August.
The uncertainty seems to further deepen with the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha (SLMM), whose 83 bloc-vote is crucial, voicing an unprecedented solidarity against the Maoist party, the largest in the House.
Their support to NC, however, would not be enough to give the NC a majority. http://www.ekantipur.com/2010/07/23/top-story/prime-ministerial-runoff-today/319019/
2.’Bit too early’ to expect anything, NC, Maoists not very hopeful
KAMAL RAJ SIGDEL, KANTIPUR REPORT
KATHMANDU, JUL 23 – Already murky, the country’s politics is likely to see further uncertainty in the next few weeks. In the prime ministerial race, none of the contesting parties—Nepali Congress and UCPN (Maoist)—is hopeful that it will garner a majority (300 votes) in Friday’s run-off election.
Though both the parties have intensified inter-party parleys, even party insiders concede that Friday could be “a bit too early” to expect anything new. “There could be some give and take in the race, but nothing substantial is going to happen tomorrow,” said NC Vice President Gopal Man Shrestha.
Leaders say it will take at least another two or three weeks before politics takes a new course. For now, none of the parties is in the mood to announce another poll date any time soon should Friday’s House session fail to yield any result.
UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal, who had to back out despite assurance of 391 votes, is opposed to the idea of his party supporting any other party that would have the backing of a two-thirds majority. “UML will abstain from voting tomorrow,” Khanal told a press meet. “I call upon the NC and the Maoists to withdraw their candidates and start the exercise to form a consensus government.”
NC leaders—who had high hopes of support from their only lifeline UML—don’t expect UML to change its decision immediately. “A section of the UML, which feels betrayed by its own party colleagues, will not support any other party. It’s almost impossible for the NC to think of forming a government unless it persuades the UML,” said Shrestha.
The Madhesi factor
The uncertainty seems to further deepen with the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha (SLMM), whose 83 bloc-vote is crucial, voicing an unprecedented solidarity against the Maoist party, the largest in the House. Their support to NC, however, would not be enough to give the NC a majority. The Maoists attempt to persuade SLMM continues to fail.
Chances of the Maoists winning the election would have been better had their erstwhile ally, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum decided to back a Maoist-led majority government. This hope came a cropper with a “tectonic shift” in politics that saw Upendra Yadav’s MJF rallying with Bijaya Gachhadar’s MJF-Loktantrik, the two arch rivals who split last year over disagreement on the UML-led coalition.
If Friday’s election fails, the parties are likely to schedule the next polls around mid-August. “It is certain that we will be able to come to any conclusion soon. It takes time to forge consensus,” said an NC leader. NC has already stated that it would not be able to take part in the prime ministerial election if it is scheduled during the party’s village, district and regional conventions in the run-up to its 12th General Convention slated for August last week.
With hopes fading that the elections would yield any result, some leaders claim that the current coalition could continue under NC’s leadership. UML leader Pradeep Gyawali said that if Friday election fails, the UML will first try to go for a consensus government with the Maoists, who then will have to come to an agreeable solution of integration of their combatants. “If that does not happen, the current coalition may continue under the NC leadership,” said Gyawali, who met Maoist leaders on Thursday.
However, an NC leader said it is very unlikely that the parties will come to an agreement anytime soon on the issue that has not been resolved despite efforts of more than three years. “At the end of the day, integration is more a political than a technical issue,” he said. “We seem to be caught in a chakrabihu.”http://www.ekantipur.com/2010/07/23/top-story/bit-too-early-to-expect-anything/319014/
3.Leaders mull way out if PM poll fails again
KANTIPUR REPORT
KATHMANDU, JUL 23 – Despite little hope that it will yield any results, the House is going for the second round of prime ministerial election on Friday with some preparations on what could be done next if it fails to pick one of the two candidates: UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party Leader Ram Chandra Poudel.
Hopes have almost died as neither of the candidates has formed a new equation to gain the required majority. Cognizant of the situation, Speaker Subas Nembang on Thursday held discussions with chief whips of the three major parties on the way forward if nothing happens in the second phase polling.
The Business Advisory Committee comprising representatives of 25 parties in the Constituent Assembly (CA) will fix a new date for run-off elections if Friday’s polling yields no result, Nembang said.
The House will directly go for voting over Dahal and Poudel on Friday as there is no provision in the Parliament Rules of Procedures-2008 to withdraw the nomination in the run-off election.
The Maoists are insisting that the third round election be conducted in a “short gap” while the NC and UML want around a two-week interval. The NC has demanded till the first week of August saying that its leaders would be busy in the districts for the party’s 12th convention. The UML has said the gap would facilitate an attempt to forge national consensus.
“If tomorrow’s result is indecisive, it will be useless to conduct the next election immediately,” said CPN-UML leader Pradeep Gyawali. “We should have some gap and think a way out.”Gyawali held discussions with leaders of the UCPN (Maoist), NC and Nembang on Thursday and suggested a break before the next election. UML leaders have also pushed for the amendment of the parliamentary regulation so that a poll can be held anew.
The NC and the Maoists are not convinced with the UML’s proposal. “The process has already moved forward so we can’t now go for candidacy withdrawal,” said Maoist Chief Whip Post Bahadur Bogati. http://www.ekantipur.com/2010/07/23/top-story/leaders-mull-way-out-if-pm-poll-fails-again/319013/
4. UML not to vote in PM’s run-off polls
The Himalayan Times
KATHMANDU: CPN-UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal today said his party would not vote in Prime Minister’s run-off election process in parliament scheduled for tomorrow.
“We will stay away from the process, as it will not choose the next PM on consensus basis,” Khanal, who pulled out of the PM’s race on Wednesday after he failed to garner the support of 401 lawmakers as required by his party’s central committee decision, told mediapersons.
He said the party would not vote in favour of any candidate who intended to form a majority government. After he pulled out of the race, Maoist chairman Prachanda and Nepali Congress vice-president Ramchandra Paudel have been left in the fray.
Addressing a press conference here, Khanal said the two previous majority-based governments were “harmful” for the conclusion of the ongoing peace process and drafting new constitution. “That’s why we have stood for the formation of a unity government,” he said. He also asked Prachanda and Paudel to play constructive role to form a unity government.
He claimed that Madhes-based parties had assured me of support. “But they backed out at the last moment,” he added.
Khanal said it would be “irrelevant” to form a majority government when he himself pulled out of the PM’s race despite the fact that he had already obtained support of 391 lawmakers.
He said PM’s run-off election would also end in a fiasco as none of the candidates would get a majority of votes without the UML backing any one of them.
A majority government is possible only if the UCPN-Maoist and four Madhes-based parties form an alliance. “But that is next to impossible,” said Pradip Gyawali, UML’s publicity department chief.
Khanal ruled out that UML would revoke its Tuesday’s decision and decide to vote in favour of a majority government. He urged the parties to do a re-think on forming a unity government. He advised Prachanda and Paudel to withdraw their candidacies on mutual understanding and find ways to form a unity government. http://thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=UML+not+to+vote+in+PM%27s+run-off+polls&NewsID=250665&a=3
5. Madhesi front sets terms for support
By Tika R Pradhan in The Himalayan Times
KATHMANDU: The United Democratic Madhesi Front will make public its conditions for supporting the two primeministerial candidates at 11 am tomorrow.
Bijaya Gachhadar, Chairman of Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic, following a meeting held at the parliamentary party office of MJF-Nepal, said the Madhesi parties had one voice and would also maintain it tomorrow.
The UDMF was scheduled to talk to the chairman of Unified CPN-Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal and NC’s candidate Ram Chandra Paudel after they prepared the base-paper. They were scheduled to make public the conditions tonight but had to defer it till tomorrow because of ‘technical reasons’.
The three point base-paper includes several conditions to be fulfilled by the new government.
On Madhes, UDMF wants:
a. The 22-point agreement inked between the MJF Nepal and Nepal Government on August 20, 2007 and eight-point pact signed between the Nepal Government and UDMF on February 28, 2008 should be implemented.
b. Establishment of Autonomous Madhes State with right to self-determination
c. At least 28 per cent reservation of Madhesi people in all the government bodies, including Army, police, education and health sectors
d. Controlling deforestation and export of stones and sand
e. Scrapping the concept of Community Forests
f. State Restructuring Commission should not be formed
g. Teams to distribute citizenships should be sent to the villages
h. Deforestation in the name of squatters and state-sponsored internal migration should be discouraged
On drafting new constitution, its riders are:
a. Federal Democratic Republican Constitution should be drafted by mid-April and promulgated by May 28
b. The constitution should incorporate human rights, press freedom, federalism, democratic republic, federal units with right to self-determination and autonomy, civilian supremacy, constitutional supremacy, pluralism and multiparty system, rule of law, unbiased and independent judiciary, proportional system on the basis of population and timely election
Its concerns on peace process:
a. Army integration should be completed within five months of the formation of government and the UCPN-M should be fully disarmed
b. Process of democratising the structure of Nepali Army and making it inclusive should begin within three months of the formation of government
c. Nepali Army’s structure should be made inclusive
d. Armed groups fighting for political objectives should be brought to mainstream through talks
e. Increasing violence, murders, criminal activities and impunity should be controlled
f. New national security policy should be draftedhttp://thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Madhesi+front+sets+terms+for+support+&NewsID=250667
6. Can there be legal solution of repeated runoff PM elections?
KAMAL RAJ SIGDEL, Kantipur report, July 23
Having observed the Wednesday’s election that failed to yield result after a large chunk of lawmakers declined to vote any side, some legal eagles suggest going for legal revision.
Either the parties, they say, should come to consensus and clear the looming uncertainty or amend at least two provisions in the Parliamentary laws governing prime ministerial election if the current stalemate has to be addressed.
First, in the Parliament Rules of Procedures-2008, the lawmakers’ “unconditional” right to remain neutral during elections in the House should be curtailed and second, the system in the same law that bars entry of new candidates in runoff elections even in case none of the entrants from first election garner a required majority votes should be reviewed.
Experts of law and constitution suggest parties to go for these reviews also to make sure that the two contestants do not fight endlessly while keeping other interested candidates at bay.
However, legal advisors to the Constituent Assembly do not quite buy this argument as they believe the current problem is a political one rather than legal. Law experts point out that the very “flaw” in the current law is that it fails to foresee a situation whereby the runoff elections do not yield any result, no matter how many times they are repeated, due to conditions such as a decisive chunk of voters remaining neutral. “Though it is an issue related to political morale, the law has to be amended if it gives a way out,” says Dahal.
Irrespective of what happens with the current runoff elections, the law experts suggest the Parliament review its laws. Under the current condition, there are chances that the elections would be repeated indefinitely if CPN-UML or any other party chose to remain neutral — meaning neither saying Yea nor saying Nay to either Maoist candidate Pushpa Kamal Dahal or NC’s candidate Ram Chandra Poudel.
Another flaw, says Advocate and Maoist lawmaker Ek Raj Bhandari, is the legal provision that fails to spell out the solution when a certain number of re-elections fail to elect any of the two contestants. “The law does not tell what if we fail to elect a prime minister for 50th time,” says Bhandari.
The current laws do not permit entry of any new contestant in by-elections. Except for Poudel and Dahal, for stance, no other leader can fight in the coming forthcoming by-elections.
“Had the law permitted entry of new candidates, the current uncertainty could have been averted,” says former Nepal Bar Association Chairman Bishwo Kant Mainali. “If an election fails to yield any result, a chapter is closed. There should be a fresh start.”
Equally wrong is the lawmakers’ tendency to stay neutral, say some experts. “Lawmakers are not individuals. They cannot remain in inaction. It is ethically wrong,” says NBA Chairman Prem B. Khadka.
Drawing upon UML’s decision to stay neutral, advocate Bhandari argues that parties cannot held the House hostage for their interest. “If any party, for instance UML, continues to stay neutral, that would mean that the party actually wants to continue the caretaker government.” He suggests the lawmakers should go for an amendment if they really want to clear the hurdle.
However, legal Advisor to the CA Tek Prasad Dhungana says since the current problem is “created” not because of the legal flaws but because of the parties wrangling, no amendment could help end the deadlock. “Any amendment won’t be healthy. The parties should select the prime minister remaining under the current laws,” says Dhungana. “The parties could have selected the prime minister as per the current law if UML had not insisted on garnering 401 votes, which is mentioned nowhere in the laws.”
However, Dhungana, also says that if the parties agree there is the possibility of both amending the laws or starting a fresh election.http://www.ekantipur.com/2010/07/22/top-story/analysis-can-there-be-legal-solution-of-repeated-runoff-pm-elections/318998/
7.Nepal’s bid for top UN post hits rough weather
ANIL GIRI in The Kantipur Report
KATHMANDU, JUL 23 – Nepal’s dream of securing a top post in the United Nations has been hit by controversies and a lot of work needs to be done if Kul Chandra Gautam, Nepal’s nominee, is to secure the coveted position.
The caretaker government, without proper homework, announced Gautam’s nomination for the President of the 66th United General Assembly and there is a serious lack of homework such as “a ceremonious propaganda” both at home and abroad to publicise the candidacy, an informed source said.
Gautam, a former UN Assistant Secretary General, faces yet another problem. Neither Nepal’s permanent mission in the UN believes that he could create a wave in his favour at the UN headquarters and the international establishment nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) is convinced that he is the right pick for the job, an official said.
“In fact, Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, as former foreign and finance minister with considerable in-country track record, would have been a better choice,” the official added.
Nepal’s bid for the GA presidency is not necessarily ill-timed, but the question is whether we are well prepared to mount a serious campaign, the senior MoFA official said.
“Given the fact that Gautam has a seemingly weak national profile and a huge gap between his last UN position, we are not exactly in a great position to buttress his credentials,” a senior government official said.
UN watchers say Nepal’s high point at the UN was during the tenure of Rishikesh Shah, who was Nepal’s permanent representative to the New York mission in the 50s. “He had outstanding academic, diplomatic and political credentials,” said a UN official based in New York. “He had excellent oratorial skills too. He was by far Nepal’s brightest prospect in the international arena. It is unfortunate that he didn’t pursue a UN career.”
Dr. Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, former finance and foreign minister and ambassador to India and the U.S. is another Nepali with excellent credentials for the job, he added, “though Shah and Dr. Thapa come from different backgrounds.”
The president of the 65th GA session (2010) is former Swiss president Joseph Deiss.
Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, the incumbent, has served as Secretary (Minister) of African Union Affairs, who played a significant role in the formation of the African Union. He has been directly involved in mediating several conflicts in Africa, notably in Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia/Eritrea and Djibouti/Eritrea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and the Philippines.
Gautam’s competitor for the UN post is Nassir bin Abdulaziz al Nasser from Qatar, who has served as Permanent Representative to the UN for 16 years. Other than his New York profile, Nasser is also backed by strong diplomacy fueled by the Gulf diplomacy and Qatar’s petro dollars. It also proactively pushed its candidacy, announcing it as far back as four months ago. “It has even asked Nepal to vote for it,” said government officials. “We are, however, still twiddling with our candidacy.”
After having backed Dr. Mahat for two months, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal suddenly made a U-turn and opted for Gautam, which, among others, has left MoFA officials and Dr. Mahat himself in a state of confusion.
To begin with, Dr. Mahat announced his reservations about the prime minister’s request to select him for the GA job for two reasons. One, his political career evidently on an upswing, he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to stay away from home for a year. Two, he also insisted with the prime minister that his candidature needed to be supported unanimously by all political parties.
“He obviously didn’t want to be a controversial candidate and he did explain this to the prime minister. He is now a little perturbed as to why the prime minister first of all made a request to get into the GA race if he was going to make a U-turn. This really is a mystery,” said a former Nepali diplomat.
According to rough calculations, more than Rs 100 million will have to be spent if Nepal intends to mount a serious GA campaign and officials aren’t sure whether it would be the right investment given the county’s poor financial health.
To help bolster his thin credentials, the government is seriously considering appointing Gautam either as advisor to the prime minister or the ambassador at large or a special envoy for an interim stint, said an official. “It is important to ensure that our candidacy has a sound political profile and height too,” the official said.
The president of the GA is a position voted for by representatives in the UNGA on a yearly basis by its member states. The presidency rotates annually between five geographical groups.http://www.ekantipur.com/2010/07/23/capital/nepals-bid-for-top-un-post-hits-rough-weather/319011/
