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Maoists want plebiscite to decide
king’s fate
WSN Network
Kathmandu: From
being remote, the possibility of a constituent assembly election in
Nepal became virtually impossible with the Maoists raising a fresh
demand.
Rebel supremo
Prachanda, who held talks with prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala
before leaving for Dipayal town in the remote farwest to attend a
cultural festival, is now proposing holding a referendum to resolve
the dispute that has held Nepal’s crucial
constituent assembly election hostage.
The Maoists are
now proposing a plebiscite in which Nepalis will choose between king
Gyanendra and a republic, and between a fully proportional election
system, as demanded by the Maoists, and a mixed system. The two
issues have ostensibly created a rift between the guerrillas and the
government, causing the former to pull out of the ruling coalition
last month.
Since Koirala
had expressed his determination not to use a constitutional
provision that allows the Gyanendra’s fate to be decided in
parliament by a twothird majority, the guerrillas, in a bid to
pressure him, demanded a house vote. With Koirala now calling their
bluff and having called a special session of parliament on Thursday,
the Maoists are in a corner. Let alone get two-third of the 327 MPs’
votes, it is debatable if they will get even one-third of that.
So far, they
have only 87 votes and the other two big parties in the house,
Koirala’s Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified
Marxist Leninist will not side with the Maoists. Prachanda’s
proposal is therefore for a referendum to decide the two issues
since organizing it would take considerable time and keep on
delaying the constituent assembly election, that was to have been
held on November 22.
10 October, 2007
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