Nepal's ruling parties request opposition for talks

In a bid to end the current stalemate in the constitution drafting process in Nepal, the country's 10-party ruling alliance Tuesday appealed to the opposition parties to come for negotiations.

The ruling party alliance, in a press statement here, said there was no alternative to consensus and urged the opposition front to be part of the Questionnaire Committee, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Constituent Assembly (CA) Sunday formed a 73-member questionnaire committee to prepare the questionnaire on the disputed issues of the constitution-making process amid ongoing agitation from opposition parties.

So far, the lawmakers of ruling Nepali Congress, CPN (UML), RPP-Nepal, CPN (ML), RPP, Nepal Pariwar Dal, Bahujan Party and two independent lawmakers have joined the Committee.

However, the 19 political parties, including the main opposition UCPN (Maoist), have not submitted the names of their lawmakers in the committee.

The opposition bloc, led by United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M), said it would not sit for talks until the ruling parties agreed to dismantle the questionnaire committee which, they said, was formed with the aim of initiating a voting process on contentious issues concerning the new constitution.

There has been no dialogue between the ruling and opposition parties since Sunday.

"We always try to resolve the problems through dialogues and consensus. We are working to draft the new constitution through unanimous consensus, if not through enough consensus," the statement said.

The opposition alliance, however, has announced street protests, saying that there was no meaning of talks with the ruling parties. After Nepal missed the Jan 22 constitution promulgation deadline, there have been no talks among the political parties.

The ruling parties are threatening to move ahead on the basis of their majority strength, while the opposition parties have said that the constitution should be drafted on the basis of consensus.

With the Constituent Assembly missing the self-imposed deadline of Jan 22, the prospects of a new constitution being drafted in Nepal have become uncertain.