Kathmandu, December 9:

The government and the Maoist talks teams today completed discussion on the draft of the interim constitution ‘at their level’ but failed to reach a consensus on some important issues, including monarchy’s role till constituent assembly (CA) elections, re-appointment of judges, fundamental rights and the CA poll process.

After the meeting, Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai told the media that they could not reach any understanding on important issues such as who should be the head of the state, re-appointment of the judges and process for holding the CA elections.

The CA polls would be held according to the mixed system – one on first-past-the-post basis for 205 seats and on proportional representation basis for 204 seats — as per the November 8 agreement.

The talks teams could not reach any decision on whether a single ballet paper was enough to conduct the mixed elections or there should be separate ballet papers.

“We could not reach any conclusion on those issues and they will be tabled in the meeting of top leaders,” said Bhattarai.

The Maoist side is learnt to have insisted that the King should not remain as the head of the state as he has been “suspended” till CA polls, while the government side is learnt to have opposed that idea. The government side is also learnt to have opposed the idea of re-appointment of judges.

Home Minister and convenor of the government talks team Krishna Prasad Sitaula said they had almost “finalised” the draft from their level and the issues that were yet to be sorted out would be finalised by the top leaders of the eight parties. He said that the high-level meeting would be held in a day or two.

The government talks team member Pradip Gyawali said that they would document the draft of the interim constitution tomorrow and submit it to the high-level meeting of the eight parties.