Four forces ink 16-point pact to deliver constitution

KATHMANDU: Four forces — the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML, the Unified CPN-Maoist and Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic — reached a 16-point deal today on constitutional issues ending months long deadlock.

These forces held two meetings today to reach a deal and the evening meeting went for almost six hours.

As per the deal, the four forces have agreed to create eight states on five grounds of identity and four grounds of economic capability as agreed earlier.

As per the deal state assemblies will have the authority to name their respective states on the basis of two-thirds majority. A Federal Commission would be formed with six-month deadline to resolve the issue of boundaries of states but the Parliament will finally settle boundary issues with two-thirds majority.

Parties have also agreed to adopt mixed electoral system and create a 275-member House of Representatives, where 165 members would be elected through first-past-the-post electoral system and the rest (110 members) through proportional representation system. This means there will be 60 per cent FPTP members and 40 per cent PR members in the Lower House.

The Upper House will have 45 members — five members will be elected from each of the eight state and five will be nominated by the President at the recommendation of the Cabinet.

Parties have also agreed to adopt parliamentary form of governance. There will be a Constitutional President who will be elected by a joint electoral college consisting of the members of Parliament and members of the state assemblies.

Lawmaker having the support of majority members in the House of Representatives will be elected the prime minister and executive powers will rest with him/her.

The UCPN-M has reservation on the forms of governance but has agreed to move the process to draft constitution in the CA.

There will be a constitutional court for 10 years that will have final jurisdiction over state versus state , state vs centre and local bodies vs local bodies including election related issues of the House of Representatives, Rastriya Sabha (Upper House) and Pradesh Sabha. The Supreme Court will be a court of record.

As per the agreement, the current Parliament will continue its parliamentary functions as per the Interim Constitution until the next parliamentary elections are held as per the new constitution. All parliamentary functions, including the formation of the government, no-trust motion and impeachment process against the President, Vice President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker would be guided by the provisions of the Interim Constitution until the next Parliament is not formed under the new constitution.

Parties have agreed to hold new elections for the President, Vice President, prime minister, Speaker and Deputy Speaker as per Interim Constitution after promulgating the new constitution as a transitional arrangement until the new Parliament is formed as per the new constitution.

Parties also agreed to hold elections to the local bodies as soon as possible.

NC President Sushil Koirala, UML Chair KP Sharma Oli, UCPN-M Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and MJF-D Chief Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar signed the agreement.