Kathmandu, August 13 :

In the backdrop of its ongoing 12th central committee meeting, the CPN-UML has been discussing, among other issues, the modality of having an an interim legislature comprising 315 members.

According the CPN-UML central body, this interim legislature should include the members of the revived House of Representatives (HoR), the elected members of the National Assembly, the representatives of the CPN-Maoist, the leaders of various political parties, intellectuals and women and people from the backward communities which have ben excluded all along.

CPN-UML central committee member Surendra Pandey told this daily that his party has proposed that the strength of the interim legislature should be at least 315.

The Nepali Congress (NC) called for a 325-member interim House while the Maoists want the strength of the interim legislature to be at least 303.

Pandey said that those who have deserted the party and all the others who have left the country would not be made members of the interim legislature.

Prem Bahadur Singh and Nar Bahadur Budha of the UML, Prakash Koirala and Narayan Singh Pun of the NC, Mregendra Kumar Yadav of Nepal Sadbhavana Party and Buddhiman Tamang of the Rastriya Jana Shakti Party would lose their membership if this principle is established.

Netralal Shrestha of RPP has been living in the USA since the last dissolution of parliament.

Pandey said that the party’s central leaders also decided that the future of monarchy should be determined by a public referendum, which should be held along with the election to a constituent assembly.

On the process of holding the constituent assembly elections, Pandey said that the party was in favour of holding it on a proportional representation based on a priority list basis, thereby making the entire country an electoral constituency.

The party’s central leaders have also proposed to leave the issues of electoral delimitation and restructuring of the state to the constituent assembly that would be formed.

Pandey said the constituent assembly election would be further delayed if it is held after restructuring the existing constituencies. The NC has proposed to conduct the election on a proportional and a first-past-the-post (mixed) basis while the Maoists are insisting on two types of proportional representation (central and regional). He said the parties would reach a consensus on this issue.

On the question of state restructuring, the party has suggested that it could be done on the basis of distribution of population, language and culture, economic interrelation and geography. Pandey said the economic interrelation between the federal states must be defined in such a way that the states can share one other’s economic advantages.

Figures show that Kathmandu Valley’s revenue contribution is 51.2 per cent; Tarai’s 18 districts 39.9 per cent; four districts of inner Tarai 4.4 per cent, and the rest of the 48 districts 4.5 per cent.