UML will be in majority in constituent assembly, claims Nepal
CPN (UML) general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal today claimed that his party was confident about wining majority seats in the constituent assembly elections.
Inaugurating the 6th national convention of the UML-affiliated Democratic National Youth Association (DNYA) in Biratnagar, Nepal said, "The UML had secured 37 percent votes in the last general elections even when the party had just witnessed split. We are now in a position to win the majority seats in the CA elections."
He said there would be strong majority of left parties in the CA if they stood united in the polls to be held by mid-June 2007. "Anti-leftist forces are working to break the emerging unity amongst leftist parties. If the left parties stay united they will be in strong majority in the constituent assembly," reports quoted Nepal as saying.
The UML general secretary also claimed that those advocating for ceremonial and constitutional monarchy would be swept away in the CA polls and added that the country was close to being a republic. "….But it will be a republic with a difference. Ours should not be a republic like that of India and Afghanistan," Nepal said. He also called for an alliance of pro-republican parties.
The UML, which was sore over the idea of giving 73 seats to Maoists (equal to that of the UML) in the upcoming interim parliament, has been advocating for proportional voting system for the 425-member constituent assembly, even as the ruling SPA and the Maoists have already agreed to go for a mixed system.
Meanwhile, addressing the DYNA function, senior UML leader and Deputy Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that the parties should not yet assume that monarchy was in its death bed. "Monarchy has only been kept powerless. That does not mean it is uprooted. Only democratic republic guarantees its exit," he said. nepalnews.com mk Dec 02 06
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