NC manifesto proposes ceremonial role to President, executive power to PM
The Nepali Congress (NC) released its election manifesto on Thursday, proposing Prime Minister as the chief executive and President as ceremonial head of state.
The NC manifesto released at a press conference at the party headquarters, Lalitpur, says the party will go for multi-party 'federal democratic republic' by abolishing the monarchy.
The 32-page manifesto says that delineation of federal units will be done in consideration with a number of factors such as geography, population, economic opportunities, relation between federal units, language, ethnicity and culture.
The manifesto, however, does not specify the number of federal units.
The party has also proposed two chambers of parliament at the centre and a legislative assembly in the state. The election of the lower house of the central parliament and the state assembly will be done under mixed electoral system, with 33 guaranteed representation of women, while the
upper house will have proportional representation.
The manifesto further says the state will adopt the concept of positive discrimination for a certain period of time in order to ensure the inclusion of all marginalised sections.
The party has also proposed to make Nepal Army an "inclusive, democratic and professional" institution.
Releasing the manifesto, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala called upon all the political parties to cooperate in conducting the constituent assembly polls in a peaceful manner. He also said he favours a coalition government for some time even after the election even if any political party wins majority.
Two major ruling allies, CPN (Maoist) and CPN (UML), have already released their election manifestos.
While the UML's concept of the head of state is similar to that of the NC, the Maoists have proposed a President with executive power. nepalnews.com mk Mar 13 08
