KATHMANDU: The ongoing Central Committee meeting of the ruling CPN-UML today continued debates on federalism and forms of governance to be incorporated in the new constitution.

The CC meet started on February 17 to discuss the party's internal issues, federalism and forms of governance.

The party also formed an 11-member panel, led by party Vice-President Bamdev Gautam, to submit a report to the CC meeting on federalism and forms of governance.

Yogesh Bhattarai, a CC member, said most of the members aired views in favour of electing the executive Prime Minister directly by the people with a provision of ceremonial president to ensure "political stability". Electing the executive PM directly by the people was the UML's official line made public during the CA elections held on April 10, 2008.

A section of the party leaders, particularly those loyal to standing committee member KP Sharma Oli, however, has expressed views on electing the executive PM by the federal parliament to prevent the executive PM from becoming a "dictator".

The Oli faction calls it a "modified version of parliamentary democracy," which has also been backed by the Nepali Congress, the second largest party in the CA.

Bhattarai said some CC members also aired views in favour of executive president to be elected directly by the people. This school of thought is close to the Unified CPN-Maoist, which has been insisting that the executive president could also ensure political stability.

Party president Jhala Nath Khanal, according to Bhattarai, said the views expressed during the meeting would be instrumental in shaping ideas on the forms of governance, one of the most contentious issues in the CA full House, which has yet to sort it out.

"As the issue of forms of governance is highly disputable, we need to keep all options open so that we can find consensus on it with other parties in the CA. We must not go for voting in the CC meeting as the issue has to be passed by a two-thirds majority in the CA full House," Bhattarai quoted Khanal as saying.

The meeting also dwelt on the principles and modality on federalism. Bhattarai said they mainly zeroed in on the principles of federalism, based on which the federal units are carved out. Ethnicity, language, culture, population and geographical distribution are the basis of carving out the federal units, he said.

According to Bhattarai, the CC members airing views in today's meeting stressed on the need to form the constitutional State Restructuring Commission, which should first come up with its suggestions before the CA full House takes any formal decision on it.

The UML leaders said the 14 federal units proposed by the CA Committee on State Restructuring and Distribution of State Power were impractical as they could not be sustainable from their capability point of view.

It may be recalled that the party had, however, proposed carving out 15 federal units - five in the southern plains and 10 in the hills and mountains. Bhattarai said they were also unrealistic.