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Maoists in no mood to file closed-list of candidate nomination on Sunday

Going by the Maoist position, the Election Commission could miss the first date of its election programme on Sunday when parties need to file closed-list of their candidates for proportional representation based election of Constituent Assembly (CA).

As per the schedule published by the Election Commission (EC), parties need to file closed-list of their candidates for PR election on Sunday. Likewise, on October 5 they have to file nomination for candidates for direct election. According to interim constitution, November CA election will be held on mixed system – half will be elected directly and half proportionally.

But the Maoists have said that they will not take part and might even disrupt the election schedule if their 22-point demands are not met. This has put the EC schedule in jeopardy as many of the seven party leaders have said that it is meaningless to go for the election without taking Maoists on board.

On Friday's meeting of seven party leaders, they failed to reach understanding on the Maoist demand for fully PR-based election system for November 22 CA election.

A senior Maoist leader CP Gajurel aka Gaurav has said that the Maoists will make the election schedule failure by mobilising cadres on Sunday.

The Maoists have already called nationwide strike on October 4-6 coinciding with another important date on EC schedule – October 5 when candidates have to file nomination for direct election.

The Maoist leaders have said that the election held without addressing their demands will merely be a farce. Among their top two demands – declaration of republic and PR system – a compromise has been reached on the first demand. The parties have agreed to pass a political commitment proposal from the parliament in favour of rooting out monarchy from the elected CA. However, fulfillment of their second demand looks difficult since it could result in a situation where electoral laws will have to be changed all over again. nepalnews.com sd Sep 29 07