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NC wants election for local bodies

The main opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) is opposed to the idea of forming local bodies through proportional system of votes as proposed by the government.

The Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting of the party that concluded Saturday decided to exert pressure on the government to hold elections for the local bodies. The government had decided to fill up the vacant posts in the local bodies by nominating representatives of various political parties based on the percentage of votes they received in the Constituent Assembly.

The CWC meeting also decided to form a committee to hold elections for its Parliamentary Party leader. The NC is without an elected leader of the PP for the past 10 months. The election was obstructed due to the lack of PP statute. The CWC, on Friday, adopted the PP statute endorsed by the PP earlier. The PP statute has a provision for a deputy leader-to be nominated by the leader and approved by the CWC- for the first time in its history.

The leaders also discussed on the PM election system to be adopted in the new constitution. While majority of the leaders were for traditional parliamentary system where the PM will be elected through the parliament and will be accountable to it, some leaders including Narahari Acharya were for the direct election of the PM.

At the meeting various issues related to the party's activities and the current political situation were also discussed. The CWC members suggested the party leadership not to postpone the party's General Convention- which is supposed to be held in August this year.

The party will officially announce the decisions taken by its CWC meeting this afternoon. nepalnews.com ta Feb 22 09