33 parties warn of pulling out of talks

KATHMANDU: Talks between the High Level Political Mechanism participating 5 political parties and the disgruntled 33 party alliance led by the CPN Maoist took a nasty turn on Saturday.

The meeting ended on a negative note after the HLPM member five political parties denied to accept the 5 point proposal tabled by the 33 parties. The HLPM member parties claimed that the demands were against their commitment of holding Constituent Assembly elections on November 19.

Following their denial to negotiate on the demands presented, the the disgruntled 33 parties claimed that there was no point in discussion as the HLPM were not willing to reach a consensus.

Earlier the parties had agreed to form a new national consensus by resolving all contentions by forming a autonomous round table conference, the organizing committee of the round table conference will have representative from the HLPM and 33 party alliance members, the round table conference will have participation from HLPM, 33 party alliance and political parties representing in the erstwhile CA, and that the representatives of various ethnicity and regions will participate in the conference as observer.

The five point demands of the 33 parties presented today included fresh date for holding CA elections, formation of a political party government, reaching consensus on the contentious issues of the new constitution, process for drafting the new constitution, remaining issues of the peace process, and remaining issues of 18 point demand charter should be discussed in the round table conference.

However the HLPM leaders denied to dicuss the demands stating that they were against the spirit of drafting the constitution through the Constituent Assembly .

They cleared it out they were not in favor of deferring the November 19 CA elections, and called on the 33 party alliance to come up with more flexibility to hold talks.