A meeting of top leaders of the three major parties - UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and UML - on Tuesday failed to decide on the form of governance in the new constitution with the NC refusing to budge from its stance against directly elected President proposed by the UCPN (M) and the UML.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting held at the Ministry for Peace and Reconstruction, Maoist leader Dev Gurung said the meeting ended inconclusively after the NC wanted to buy time to reach an understanding, proposing to defer the constitution-drafting schedule.
However, the Maoist side turned down the NC's proposal and said that the Constituent Assembly will now vote on the issue.

The three-party leaders met hours after as the sub-committee under the Constitutional Committee (CC) could not arrive at a conclusion on the issue despite successive deliberations. The sub-committee entrusted them responsibility to iron out the differences.

In the sub-committee meeting earlier today, the NC stood firm on its stance in favour of the President elected by the electoral college while the UCPN (M), UML and most other parties were in favour of directly elected President and Prime Minister elected from the parliament. The Maoists and the UML are in favour of popularly elected President with Prime Minister elected from the parliament.

Form of governance is the only major issue the sub-committee has at hand at the moment. Maoist chairman Dahal, who heads the sub-committee, has stated that all other issues have been agreed upon while the issue of state restructuring is being handled by the State Restructuring Commission. nepalnews.com

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