Parliament special session to begin today

The special session of the parliament is set to resume from 11 am on Monday after two week's recess.

As the parties have failed to break the deadlock over the Maoist proposal at the parliament demanding republic and fully proportional representation based election system, the issue is likely to be put for voting at the House after discussion.

Speaker of the House Subas Nemwang has claimed that formal and informal meetings would be held among all the parties present at the parliament to end the impasse in order to prevent voting. "I am hopeful that some sort of understanding would emerge from within the parliament," he said.

On Sunday, too, the last-ditch attempt by seven parties failed to produce any result. The Prime Minister asked the Maoists to withdraw their parliamentary proposal, which the latter flatly declined. The PM then said that the issue would be decided through democratic process (or parliamentary voting).

Meanwhile, reports say that the PM could be planning to propose increment in the number of proportional representation seats to 65 percent – up from existing 50 percent. This proposal could be submitted to the Maoists for consideration in the meeting likely to be held on Monday morning.

Earlier, Maoist chairman Prachanda had said that his party could accept increment of PR seats within the existing mixed system if its other demand on republic declaration is met fully.

Meanwhile, ahead of the parliament session, Nepali Congress and Maoists are holding a meeting of their respective parliamentary parties to forge their strategies. nepalnews.com sd Oct 29 07

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