The majority of CPN (Maoist Center) leaders have spoken against voting for CPN-UML candidate in the presidential election during the ongoing standing committee meeting.
Most of the standing committee members have stressed on seeking national consensus for presidential election. Some of them also said that national consensus government should be formed under Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the post of president should not be given to UML.
“I was present for one day during the two-day meeting. All of those speaking in the meeting opined that president should be elected through consensus,” Maoist Secretary Ganesh Sah told Setopati. “There was no agreement about giving president to UML even at the time of forming government. That is just a rumor they have spread.”
Prime Minister (PM) Dahal has been recently saying that it would be better if president were elected through national consensus. He even called an all-party meeting at Baluwatar and proposed national consensus be forged for constitutional posts but CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli rejected the proposal outright.
UML leaders have been claiming that there was agreement about giving the posts of speaker and president to UML before forming the government. But it is not yet known whether the agreement was written or verbal.
Maoist Center has not yet specified what the national consensus that the party is seeking is. But UML still suspects that Maoist Center wants to give the post of president to Nepali Congress (NC) in return for the confidence vote to the Dahal government violating the power sharing agreement in the coalition.
Both UML and NC have already announced that they will field candidates for the presidential election. Maoist Center can prove decisive in the presidential election that has to be held before March 13, and the candidate that the party votes for looks set to win the election.
“We also feel added pressure to seek consensus for president after NC voted for PM Dahal during the floor test. We want the president to be elected through consent of both NC and UML as far as possible,” a Maoist leader told Setopati. “It can also be a figure outside politics but accepted by the society in such situation. We will hold discussion for that.”
The leader added that the party will have to take a call on who to vote for if such NC-UML consensus is not possible.
UML Deputy General Secretary Pradeep Gyawali expressed confidence that UML’s candidate will be elected president. “Maoist Center is talking abstract about presidential election. But we are confident that it will not break the coalition with UML,” he stated. “There cannot be seeking of consensus going outside the coalition. National consensus cannot be sought for sharing of spoils.”
No Maoist leader is openly talking about the party supporting UML candidate in presidential election. This shows that the position of not supporting UML candidate is becoming stronger in the party.
The term of President Bidya Devi Bhandari expires on March 13 and the election should be held before that.
There is confusion about presidential election due to the contradictory provisions in the Constitution and law.
Article 63(1) of the Constitution states ‘The term of office of the President shall be five years from the date on which he or she is elected.’
Article 63(2) of the Constitution then states ‘The President whose term of office under clause (1) has expired shall continue to discharge the functions under this Constitution until another elected President assumes his or her office.’
The act about president’s election, meanwhile, states that date of election should be set in a way that election is held a month before the term of predecessor expires.
