Chitwan, December 22

CPN-Maoist Centre Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal said his party and the CPN-UML had agreed to lead the government by turns.

“There are tentative agreements on a number of issues between us and the UML, including leading the government by turns and the upcoming meeting of the party unity coordination committee will finalise all the agreements,” said the CPN-MC chief, speaking at a programme organised by Press Centre, Chitwan, at Bharatpur airport today.

Further, revealing about discussion on whether to form the national assembly through single transferable electoral system or majority system at a meeting among five political parties in the Capital recently, Dahal expressed confident that a political consensus will be achieved very soon in order to form the new government.

“The meeting didn’t reach a conclusion but discussions were positive,” said the Maoist leader, trying to dispel rumours of links between the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s phone call to the heads of the major three political parties and the meeting. “He called us to congratulate on holding the elections successfully and election results,” he clarified.

On a slightly different note, Dahal opined that the election to the national assembly doesn’t bear on formation of the government. “The process to form a new government will start once the Election Commission submits the results of the parliamentary elections to the President,” he said, reiterating the Parliament and National Assembly are different businesses and don’t affect each other in any way.

“As for formation of the National Assembly, it was clearly mentioned in the previous constitution that it would happen through single transferable electoral system but sadly there is a bit confusion in the present charter,” said Dahal, adding that the left alliance would form an official opinion on this following a discussion after he returned to the capital tomorrow.