I/II. UML, Maoist Centre agree to form CPN - TIKA R PRADHAN, Kathmandu Feb 20, 2018-More than two months after the federal and provincial polls gave them a sweeping majority, two communist allies CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) agreed to the bases for merger on Monday night.
A meeting of the Party Unification Coordination Committee (PUCC) held in Baluwatar spelt out seven points of agreement to further the unification process.The unified party will be named the Communist Party of Nepal. It will fall short of 10 seats for a two-thirds majority in the 275-strong Lower House. The UML has won 121 seats and the Maoist Centre 53 in the House of Representatives. The merger will ensure political stability at least for the next five years in the country where governments change almost every year.As per the agreement, two top leaders KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal will share the party chair in equal capacity. The duo would also share the five-year term of prime minister. Marxism and Leninism will shape the unified party’s political ideology, which will accept multi-party system as a form of democratic practice with the ultimate goal of socialism. “With this agreement, the Maoist Centre will join the government,” said Narayan Kaji Shrestha, a PUCC member. He said the two parties would now sit for finalising the sharing of government portfolios and other powerful positions including in the party. A meeting between Oli and Dahal had earlier agreed to conclude the deal at the PUCC meeting. The two leaders had consulted with their party colleagues following the four-hour-long lunch meeting on Sunday. On October 3, while announcing an electoral alliance in a surprise move, the two parties had claimed that they would go for merger as soon as the federal and provincial elections are over. The merger process took more than two months to reach this stage as the leaders failed to settle outstanding issues between the parties having different historical backgrounds. Management of top leaders in the new party had also taken time. The left alliance has formed governments at the centre and in six of the seven provinces. With the unification of these liberal communist parties, hard-line Maoist offshoots led by Netra Bikram Chand and Mohan Baidya are also preparing to merge. A meeting of the PUCC on Wednesday had failed to announce the merger after UML members refused to consider Maoism for discussion alongside People’s Multi-party Democracy for defining the new party’s political line. Second-rank leaders were concerned about their position in the new party. With the merger, the Maoist party leaves behind its violent past when it waged a decade-long insurgency. The party entered the peace process 12 years ago following an understanding with the parliamentary parties to write the constitution from the Constituent Assembly. Several efforts at unification between the two communist parties since the Maoists came above ground had been unsuccessful. Published: 20-02-2018 08:15 II. http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2018-02-21/uml-maoist-unified-party-may-not-get-cpn-name.html UML-Maoist unified party may not get CPN name - Post Report, Kathmandu Feb 21, 2018-The CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) may not be able to register their unified party as the Communist Party of Nepal as another with the same name has already been registered with the Election Commission. Besides, the Maoist outfit led by Netra Bikram Chand has also been conducting its activities under the same name without registering with the EC. According to the seven-point basis for party unification that the two communist allies agreed to on Monday night, the new party would be named CPN. According to Clause 6 (1E) of the Act on Political Parties, a party cannot be registered if its name and election symbol matches that of a political party already recognised by the election authority. Clause 9 of the same Act says that the legal name, flag and symbol of a party will be protected, barring others from using them. The official CPN is led by Rishiram Kattel, an old communist who worked under former UML leader Manmohan Adhikari as a member of the CPN (Marxist) before its merger with the CPN (Marxist Leninist) in 1991. Some fringe communist factions came together to form the CPN under Kattel five years ago. It was registered with the poll body just before the second Constituent Assembly elections in 2013. Since then, the party also got registered for political activities as per Article 269 of the constitution and for participation in the elections as per Article 271 of the charter. The party got an election symbol--hammer and spade--but did not join the polls. EC Spokesman Navaraj Dhakal made it clear that a new party cannot be registered in the same name while another has already been recognised by the commission. “But any party which comes up with an added name, comma or bracket could be considered for registration,” he said. However, EC officials said they would first see how the UML and the Maoist Centre approach the poll body with their decision on merger. Published: 21-02-2018 08:25 -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
