NC UML ready for polls but slam Maoists for raking up threshold issue

KATHMANDU: Leaders of CPN UML and Nepali Congress have shown eager to hold CA elections in November and at the same time slammed the UCPN Maoist for raking up issues to hinder ongoing efforts towards that end.

CPN UML leader Shankar Pokharel accused the Maoist of stalling CA election process showing reluctance to downsize the size of Constituent Assembly and provision of threshold while speaking at the Reporters Club Nepal on Thursday.

“The lawmakers’ number of 601 in the erstwhile constituent assembly (CA) was massive, and it is ridiculous on the part of the UCPN-Maoist to urge for the same number when other parties have come to a conclusion of a smaller one,” Pokharel said at the program presided by the Clubs President Rishi Dhamala.
He further stressed that the election is a must, and there is no point waiting for agitating the CPN-Maoist decision for their participation in the election.

However, Pokharel revealed that his party is ready to make the Head of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi resign from his chief justice position if this can convince the CPN-Maoist to take part in the purported election.

Also, he condemned the government’s decision to appoint Lokman Singh Karki as the chief commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

Likewise, he picked on the government’s helplessness by not being able to provide security to voter list collectors for the election process.

In the same programme, leader of Nepali Congress (NC) Deep Kumar Upadhaya expressed dissatisfaction over the bickering of top four parties when the election is knocking on the door.

“Without wasting any time, all the parties should concentrate on the poll process by forging consensus on the conflicted issues,” he said. ” The disputed points between big four parties should not be publicised, we should solve them between ourselves.”

Upadhaya too stressed on the one per cent threshold, and claimed that the parties have no right to represent the CA if they could not meet this criteria.