Kathmandu, August 4:

A more responsible consensus among the political parties is needed after the Interim Constitution Drafting Committee comes up with an interim statute, UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal said today.

Addressing a function organised to release two books at the party office, he said the political parties will have to go through a series of discussions on various topics of the interim constitution. He also said that the transitional phase should not be long.

“We believe that instead of dividing the country into hundreds of constituencies, the system of proportional representation should be followed,” he said.

He further said that a lot of things has to be clarified before the date for elections to a Constituent Assembly is announced. He also said that the current centralised political system should be replaced by a new structure, where states will have more autonomy rights.

Standing committee member of the party, Jhala Nath Khanal, said that as monarchy has been a major hurdle in the country’s development, prosperity and national unity, it should go as soon as possible.

“As the restructuring is concerned, we have to go for deeper discussions on how many states Nepal should have and on which basis,” he said. Arjun Narashing KC of the Nepali Congress (NC) said that a process of direct elections and proportional representation should be followed during the assembly polls. The books released at the function — Structure and Process of Constituent Assembly and People’s Multi-Party Republic — were written by UML activist Rajendra Gautam.