NC, CPN-UML reject Maoists' demand to amend Constitution

The Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML today rejected Maoists' demand to amend the interim Constitution to include a provision of consensus to form the next government, saying the country cannot be held hostage to the vested interests of some political parties.

"We have both procedures - majority based and consensus based - in the Constitution and as we are committed to consensus polities, there is no need to bring any amendment," said Nepali Congress leader Bimalendra Nidhi.

A central committee meeting of UCPN-Maoist on Monday demanded that the relevant provisions in the interim Constitution be amended to pave way for consensus politics if the Maoists are to participate in the Constitution drafting process.

The Maoists have been threatening to boycott the Constituent Assembly, alleging that massive scale of rigging was prevalent during the recently concluded polls.

The party, which was routed in the November 19 polls, has maintained that the interim Constitution should be amended and a system of consensus established for Constitution drafting, formation of new government and to decide other matters as well.

According to Nidhi, the interim Constitution has already paved the way for consensus politics.

The interim Constitution has a provision of forming a majority based government if efforts to form a consensus government failed to yield any result, he added.

Similarly CPN-UML has also rejected the Maoists view regarding amendment to the interim Constitution.

"Since the new Constituent Assembly functions' both as an interim legislature and the Constituent Assembly, an amendment in the interim constitution to make consensus mandatory for all decisions may create serious problems in future," CPN-UML spokesman Pradip Gyawali said.

"Consensus is of course, the first priority but what if there is no consensus among parties," argued Gyawali.

"The country cannot be held hostage to the vested interests of some political parties," he added.

The Nepali Congress headed by Sushil Koirala has emerged as largest party in the direct voting system with 105 seats followed by CPN-UML with 91 seats and UCPN-Maoist with 26.

The Nepali Congress has also been leading under the proportionate voting system with nearly 2 million votes followed by headed by Jhalanath Khanal CPN-UML with 1.9 million votes and UCPN-Maoist with 1.2 million votes.