The party general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal said establishing 'federal democratic republic' and building of strong and prosperous Nepal is the main focus of their manifesto.
"The main thing is to settle the issue of 240-years-old monarchy. We must defeat all monarchists," Nepal said.
In its manifesto, the party has said that the Prime Minister should be directly elected by the people and be checked by elected parliament. "The president will be titular head of state," he said. Earlier, the Maoists had forwarded manifesto, which stated that president will be the executive chief.
"The UML will go for federal units, which will be divided based on concentration/density of language, ethnic group, region, history and socio-economic status. We think that the actual number of such federal units should be decided after wider consultations and through the State Restructuring Committee," he said.
On the economy, the UML general secretary said that they will strengthen public, private and cooperative sectors as pillars of economy. He also said that the party will give adequate attention to development education, health, tourism, and water resources.
"We have already published Vision Nepal document, which elaborates our 20 year perspective plan for economic development," he said.
Nepal said UML will back democratic and professional national army.
On the issue of leftist alliance, Nepal said that the issue was better left for local levels to decide. He refused to comment further. nepalnews.com sd Mar 09 08
