Nepalgunj, November 9:

Senior NC leader and Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel today said that the full proportional representation system of elections will lead the nation to division.

Addressing a function organized to lay the foundation stone for a building of the Banke chapter of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) in Nepalgunj, he said, “A politics based on the head count of different ethnic groups under the full proportional system will create split in parties and lead the nation to division.”

Referring to the proposals passed by a simple majority of the interim parliament for all-out proportional electoral system and and a republic, Poudel said, “The proposals have pushed the nation into a deadlock.”

He said that the proposals can neither mount pressure on the government to implement

them nor move Nepali Congress (NC) an inch away from its ideology.

Saying that the NC stood against full proportional system for the welfare of the nation, he said, “There is clear provision in the interim constitution that such proposals will not

be implemented until there was a two-thirds majority in the parliament to back them.”

The proportional systems of elections understood by the Leftist parties, Madhesis and janajatis are different, he said. “The proportional system understood by CPN-UML and Maoist chairman Prachanda is system of casting votes to the parties, whereas other groups understand it as a proportional representation based on the population of janajatis,” Poudel said.

He accused the Leftist forces of creating instability in the nation by going for PR system and early republic by breaching the earlier agreements.

Minister Poudel said the construction of the Karnali Highway has been completed and the government is thinking of developing Jumla as a model well-managed city. As Karnali is important from the points of view of tourism, medicinal herbs and new technology in agriculture, development of the Karnali region will help in the overall development of the nation, he said.