Maoists ready for utmost flexibility over polls: Dahal
SAMUNDRA PAUDEL
TANAHUN, Jan 21: UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that his party is ready for any option that would create ground for new elections for Constituent Assembly (CA) by the end of coming May.
"The Maoist party is ready to be flexible to any extent," Dahal said while addressing a function in Gorkha district on Monday. "We are ready to come up with a more flexible proposal if such a move helps to hold election in May." He urged the opposition parties Nepali Congress and CPN-UML to act responsibly.
While addressing a gathering in Gorkha, the home district of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who is also the party´s vice-chairman, Dahal repeatedly claimed that there was no serious difference between him and Bhattarai. "It is true that there is a dialectic relation between me and Vice-chairman Bhattarai," he said. "And it is also true that the party has gained this height because we have maintained a dialectic relation."
Prime Minister Bhattarai and Deputy Prime Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, another vice-chairman of the same party, who shared the podium at the function argued that CA elections couldn´t be held as the president blocked ordinances forwarded by the government. Bhattarai and Shrestha both are from Gorkha.
"Opposition parties have been holding the government and the Maoist party responsible for not conducting elections," said Bhattarai. "But the elections couldn´t be held because the president didn´t issue the ordinances." The prime minister claimed that holding new CA elections has become a must to institutionalize federalism, secularism and republic system.
It may be recalled that the president refused to approve the ordinances saying that they were brought without political consensus.
Bhattarai maintained that opposition parties were fearful of fresh elections and lambasted them for seeking power without winning elections. "There is no history in any country of an opposition party being handed the government leadership without holding elections," he added. He vowed to hold elections in May at any cost.
Deputy Prime Minister Shrestha said the parties have failed to end the deadlock because of their rigid stances.
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Maoists Ready For Utmost Flexibility Over Polls: Dahal
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