Ninety-five percent of political issues agreed; arms management still tricky: Report

A leading daily has reported that the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Maoists have reached understanding on almost all political issues barring the arms management.

The Kathmandu Post daily, in its Friday edition, has referred to a political leader involved in the peace parleys as saying that they have reached agreement "on almost 95 percent of the political issues and have even documented this."

The daily report adds that a crucial meeting was held on Wednesday between the Nepali Congress (NC) and Maoist leaders, which sharpened their understandings on political issues reached during the last summit talks.

The report states that the leaders have agreed that the fate of the monarchy will be decided by the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly. This has been the long-standing position of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala as well. It appears the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) party, which was insisting on referendum to decide about monarchy, has decided to agree on this method if others reach a consensus. "However, the documented agreement does not say whether the decision will be by a simple or a two-third majority," the daily report adds.

The daily further states that the leaders have agreed to form a 300-member strong interim legislative body with the NC, UML and Maoists sharing similar number of members. "The major political parties will re-nominate all sitting lawmakers in the incumbent House of Representatives and the National Assembly. They will also nominate some SPA leaders who are not in the present parliament, but sitting lawmakers who supported regression will not be nominated to the interim legislative body –which will be automatically dissolved after the first meeting of the constituent assembly," the report says.

Likewise, the leaders also have agreed to form 23-member interim cabinet – NC, UML and the Maoists will get five ministries each. The NC (Democratic) will get 3-5 ministries and the rest will be divided among smaller parties. The division of portfolios has not been discussed yet, it adds.

The daily further writes that the leaders have also agreed that the CA will have 425 seats in which members will be elected through an election that would be of mixed proportionate type. "The 205 members in the CA will be directly elected from the existing constituencies, another 204 will be nominated by the political parties in proportion to the popular votes they garner during the CA polls. The prime minister will nominate the remaining 16 members. The CA will also function as the legislature for about two years until full-fledged parliamentary elections takes place," the daily report states.

On the issue of citizenship, the NC and the Maoists want all those born in Nepal before 1990 or have been residing in Nepal since then to be eligible for Nepali citizenship. The UML wants 1979 to be the cut off year. "But that's not a big issue and an agreement will be reached without any difficulty," said a UML leader.

The daily report adds that the NC and the Maoist leaders have also "reached and documented a crucial agreement on the issue of royal property." The daily quotes NC leader Dr. Shekhar Koirala as saying that the property belonging to the late King Birendra and his family will be put under a trust, and will be used for welfare activities. "The property inherited by King Gyanendra by virtue of ascending the throne will be nationalized. However, the King's personal property will remain with him. This means properties like Narayanhity Palace and Nagarjuna Palace will become national property while shares in Hotel Soaltee and the likes will remain with the King's family," the daily report states.

The daily report also quotes Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, senior leader of the Maoists, as saying that "although we have not exactly sealed the deal, (the aforementioned political agreement) is true."

However, going by the dictum of "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed" – which is widely applied in peace negotiations everywhere – the leaders still need to agree everything in a 'comprehensive package form."

Till now, the issue of arms management is still undecided. "The NC and the Maoist negotiators have not made any tangible progress on the technicalities of arms management. The only thing they have agreed is to form a Commission or a Committee under the cabinet that will work on the issues of reform in the Nepali Army, integration of rebels into the national army and rehabilitation of the remaining combatants," the daily report says.

The report also quotes Dr. Bhattarai as saying that following the comprehensive agreement, "the interim government should be in place by mid-November." nepalnews.com sd Oct 27 06