The left alliance has set four standards for selection of provincial chief ministers and candidates for election of the National Assembly scheduled for February 7.
CPN-UML Chairman KP Oli and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal during the meeting at the former's residence in Balkot Wednesday morning have set up four standards and directed the task force formed for selection of provincial chief ministers and candidates for election of the National Assembly to work accordingly, UML leader Shankar Pokharel told Setopati.
The first ground for selection of chief ministers, according to Pokharel, will be the number of seats in the provincial assembly won by the party concerned. The potential and competence of the individual contenders for the chief ministers will also be taken into consideration. "We must pay attention to the spirit of party unification while taking decision in that manner," Pokharel said. "There must also be balance while selecting provincial chief ministers and candidates for the National Assembly."
Pokharel said the task force will not take decisions about the individuals but will recommend what would be appropriate. "We will not use the 60:40 proportion that we employed while distributing tickets for the House of Representatives (HoR) elections. We will take the seats won in the provincial assembly concerned into consideration," he clarified.
The task force, following the instructions by chairman duo, will submit its report to the unification coordination committee including common positions on common candidates for National Assembly election, formation of provincial governments, provincial chief ministers, provincial speakers and other issues.
Maoist Center leader Barsha Man Pun said the task force will start its work from Thursday and submit its report as soon as possible. If the parties unify before the report is submitted, the report will automatically go to the top leadership of the unified party, according to Pun.
The meeting of coordination committee for unification on Tuesday had formed a six-member task force for selection of provincial chief ministers and candidates for election of the National Assembly including three members from each party. Subas Nembang, Shankar Pokharel, and Surendra Pandey of UML and Ram Bahadur Thapa, Barsha Man Pun and Matrika Yadav of Maoist Center are included in the task force.
