"Voting right is a basic right of NRNs" 
Speakers at an interaction programme on the "Role of NRN in CA and their Voting Rights" held in the capital on Friday stressed on the need for the state to recognise the basic voting right of NRN community.
"We want to be partner of development process of Nepal. And being NRN community, the right to vote is our basic right – which should not have been brought into debate in the first place," said Naresh Koirala, a Canada-based engineer, speaking at the programme organised by Kathmandu Newsline and supported by UNIFEM-Nepal.
Likewise, other NRN speakers drew the attention of the government and the parties to ensure their voting rights in the forthcoming election. "We should be allowed to vote in the Constituent Assembly. Many expert NRNs like Professor Surya Subedi, a constitutional expert, can provide important contributions in the constitution-making process," said another speaker.
They also demanded overseas voting system and vowed to help the government in the technicalities and logistic management.
"At a time when we are talking about inclusion and participation, we must not keep out the two million NRN community from constitution-making process," said Saru Joshi Shrestha, a programme officer at UNIFEM-Nepal office. She also raised the issue of Nepali migrant women workers and the need to incorporate them into the mainstream political debate.
Oli lashes out at pseudo-revolutionaries
Addressing the same programme, senior Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) leader KP Sharma Oli lashed out at the pseudo-revolutionaries.
"By advancing seemingly revolutionary slogans of immediate republic declaration, they have blocked the progressive march of the country," he said, referring to Maoist demands. "By raising the issue of proportional representation based election system, they blocked the election itself," he said.
He also cautioned that parties and leaders should not hijack the people's rights. "It is not good for some clever leaders and parties to keep on making important decisions in the name of people," he said.
Speaking on the issue of NRNs, Oli regretted that the rights of NRN were not being addressed. "It is sad that we have to debate issues like voting rights for our own people," he said.
"The new Nepal means participatory and inclusive Nepal where everybody can participate," he said. nepalnews.com sd Nov 02 07
