Kathmandu, November 13, 2006

The central committee meeting of the CPN-Maoist today decided to form a four-member task force headed by Ram Bahadur Thapa, aka Badal, to look into ways to reorient the party organisation in the changed political scenario.

Other members of the taskforce are Maoist talks team member Dev Gurung, political in-charge of Kathmandu Special Command, Barshaman Pun, aka Ananta, and in-charge of western command Post, Bahadur Bogati, aka Diwakar.

The meeting held at Namobuddha Fulbari Resort in Kavre has assigned the task force the job to submit a report on the ways to reorient the party organisation to the central committee at the earliest possible.

The meeting also approved a political report presented by chairman Prachanda and hailed the November 8 accord as “historic.” Gurung said they also discussed the possibility of polarisation of the leftist forces under a democratic republic front.

The meeting also stressed the need of massive transformation of the party’s organisations keeping in mind the constituent assembly elections.

Gurung said the meeting also decided to send 73 representatives the party is supposed to send in the interim legislature according to ethnicity, region, gender and socio-cultural diversity.

He said the meeting also decided to form a four-member team headed by Nanda Kishor Pun, aka Pasang, to look after the overall management of arms and UN monitoring.

EC forms panels to prepare for CA polls

The Election Commission today instituted two organisational committees to facilitate smooth conduct of elections to a constituent assembly by June 15.

The EC has issued a notification to this effect, EC spokesman Laxman Prasad Bhattarai said today after a meeting.

A team headed by newly-appointed Election Commissioner Usha Nepal will look into issues like the draft of laws and by-laws related to elections. The committee will also look into the preparation aspect of ballot papers and the task of printing them.

It will further take up issues related to security and coordination during the elections, preparation of the electoral code of conduct and monitoring teams.

The EC announced another committee under the convernorship of another Election Commissioner Nilkantha Upreti.

The committee will draw up a draft of electoral directives, look into the management aspect of the elections, ensure awareness among electorates and conduct electoral supervision and publicity.

The announcement comes a day after Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokharel said that the elections to a constituent assembly could be held by June 15 next year “after the official legal structure is prepared.”