Triangular fight for a president
The crux of current deadlock lies in the fact that the three major parties in the Constituent Assembly (CA) – CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN (UML) – stand sharply divided, till this date, on who should be the first president of republican Nepal and how the appointment should be done. The fierce bickering going on for some time now is much in common with the power struggle among the parties witnessed in the past.
Until Thursday, the NC and UML had not come clean about their claim for the presidency, until the Maoists gave it up, saying that they are in favour of a person not liked with any major political parties.
On Friday, Congress general secretary Dr. Ram Baran Yadav said his party chief, Girija Prasad Koirala, is the most eligible candidate given his lifelong struggle for democracy in the country. Maoist leader Dev Gurung was quick to brush aside the NC leader’s claim, saying they won’t accept Koirala for the top job.
The Maoist decision to give up the presidency claim, which came after failing to gain support from coalition partners, is largely motivated by their intention not to allow Koirala to clinch the post of president. Meanwhile, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum remains coalesced around the Maoist position on Koirala’s as the president. MJF chief Upendra Yadav has been a vocal critic of the octogenarian NC leader, describing him as a visionless politician.
In Friday’s discussion, the Maoists threw a hint to UML leaders that they might support the candidacy of former UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and also made it clear that they were ready to support a presidential candidate with political background.
Dr Yadav’s claim has received a somewhat negative response from the UML. UML general secretary Jhal Nath Khanal challenged the NC to come up with majority for electing Koirala as the president.
Khanal told reporters on Saturday that his party was not recommending any name for the post right now, but he expressed confidence that parties would be able to reach consensus very soon. He said president must come from elections.
In the meantime, UML leader Bam Dev Gautam has disclosed his party’s claim for the top job. “We are quite ready for that,” Gautam said Saturday.
Obviously, Prime Minister Koirala has been accused of being reluctant to resigning from the government and let the Maoists to take charges of it until he gets green signals from other parties for his nomination for presidency. What’s certain is that he wants to remain active in politics despite worries about his flagging health and his poor acceptability among other parties.
During CA poll campaign, he had pledged to retire from active politics after the elections and hand over responsibility to new generation. His motive to continue to be in active politics stemmed from his fear that communists might gain complete hold of power in the new political set up. Understandably, NC leaders have repeatedly talked of maintaining a power balance in the post-election period by sharing the posts of president and Prime Minister between themselves and the Maoists.
Maoist leaders criticised NC for its claim for president citing its inability to propose a presidential candidate during the polls. The Maoist proposal to make Prachanda the first president of republic Nepal had been ridiculed by the coalition partners all along the election campaigning. At the end, Maoist gave up the claim and it is now for those parties that did not dare to announce their presidential candidate in the elections, to justify their claim for the top post.
What should not be forgotten, however, is that despite hindrances and hurdles, the parties have efficiently managed to sort out their differences in the past, taking peace process steadily to success. They still are hopeful to ending the current deadlock in a few days – before the third sitting of the constituent assembly scheduled for June 11.
Published in Nepalnews.com