After three-day negotiations, the top leaders of the three largest Nepali parties in the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Tuesday agreed to a provision for ceremonial president and executive prime minister following the declaration of Nepal as a republic through the first CA meeting slated for Wednesday.
A breakthrough was made Tuesday in the protracted talks after the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M), which emerged as the largest party in the to-be-formed CA and is poised to lead the next government, agreed to the provision for a ceremonial president to serve as the country's head-of-state, local leading news website Nepalnews.com reported.
"As per the agreement, the president can exercise his powers to resolve any constitutional or political deadlock and fulfill other normal presidential responsibilities. The three parties have also agreed that all executive powers would be vested on the prime minister," said Jhalnath Khanal, general secretary of the third largest party in the CA, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML).
The parties have also decided to ask the government to make it public holiday from May 28 to May 30, declaring it as a national celebration to herald the republican set up in the country.
The top leaders broken off their talks on Monday after the CPN-M side took a firm stance against constitutional amendment, arguing that there is no need to amend the two-thirds provision init for deposing the prime minister.
According to Khanal, after the first meeting of the CA on Wednesday, there will be a one week recess before another meeting to be held.
"During that one week, we intend to resolve other major differences like the issue of amending constitution to replace two-third provision with simple majority and so on," Khanal said.
He said that following the republic implementation, the royal flag will be replaced with national flag at the royal palace.
Meanwhile, the CA is due to be formed on Tuesday afternoon and hold its first meeting on Wednesday to remove Nepali monarch and declare the country a federal democratic republic, in accordance to the third amendment to the Interim Constitution passed on Dec. 28, 2007.
Source:Xinhua
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