People's Front Nepal (PFN), one of the constituents of the Seven Party Alliance (SPA), on Friday made public its election manifesto for the Constituent Assembly (CA) election due for April 10.
In the 24-page manifesto made public amidst a press conference in the capital, the PFN has proposed that the President, as the head of state,shall be vested with executive powers. However, the party has said that to maintain 'power balance' the President will share certain power will the Prime Minister, and which shall be determined by the CA.
The PFN's concept is different from the ones brought forth by other parties before this in that the party has proposed that the President should be elected through direct voting while the Prime Minister be chosen by majority votes of both the upper and lower house of the parliament.
Releasing the manifesto, PFN chairman Amik Sherchan clarified that the party has put forth the concept of 'power balance' so as not to let either the President or the Prime Minister to be 'despotic'
The party has also proposed the restructuring of the state based on federalism while keeping in view different factors such as ethnicity, language, population, region, geography, natural resources.
The manifesto says that a ceiling on land ownership shall also be imposed whereby a revolutionary "land reform" programme would be initiated on the basis of the concept of "land-tillers as owners". Similarly, the party has said it would end privatisation and commercialisation of schools and educational institutions. It has also emphasised that the state must ensure proper health services to the people. The manifesto also proposes to guarantee 50 percent of seats for women in every state organ.
Sherchan said that his party would keep the doors open for "leftist unity" in the CA election. Furthermore, he said that for the electoral alliance the party was seriously mulling at withdrawing its candidacy from Constituency no 2 and 10 in Kathmandu. nepalnews.com ag Mar 14 08
