Kathmandu, November 15:

Standing committee member of the CPN-UML Pradip Nepal said today that his party may not join the interim government without having a clear policy on running the coalition government and his party’s “respectable participation” in the government.

“The UML may not join the interim government without having a policy on running the coalition government and respectable participation in it,” Nepal said at the Reporters’ Club. He said that his party would contest constituent assembly polls without participating in the government.

He said that the ministers who represent other parties than the NC have not been able to perform their responsibility due to Prime Minister’s hurdle in their respective ministries.

Nepal also expressed doubt over the possibility of holding an election to a constituent assembly saying: “The parliament is yet to formulate law on election, the Citizenship BIll is yet to be passed by the House and problem of voters’ list is yet to be sorted out.”

Talking about the UML’s stance on referendum, Nepal said that it was the best way to decide the fate of monarchy in which millions of people could directly express their opinions through ballet. He also reminded that the UML had expressed dissident views on 27 issues of the 1990 Constitution but the political parties blamed his party for going against the constitution.

“Fifteen years later, the revived House of Representatives has adopted the issues that we had expressed dissident views earlier,” Nepal said, adding that the political parties would later realise later that the referendum was the best option to decide the monarchy’s fate. He said his party accepted the majority decision and wrote a note of dissent on the November 8 agreement on referendum and election process.

He also defended his party’s voice for the principle of proportional representation system of election which could incorporate all ethnic communities, wom-en, Dalits and people of the backward regions. He said that the mixed election system was very complicated and that it would be problematic in a country like Nepal.