Nepal: Seven-party meet fails to end crisis

Kathmandu, Nov 19: The meeting of the top leaders of Nepal's Seven-party alliance held this morning failed to reach a political consensus.

The meeting which was aimed to forge an agreement on the motions seeking an immediate arrangement for a republic and a fully proportional representation system for the election ended inconclusively. The meeting was also expected to fix new date for the Constituent Assembly (CA) election.

''Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala asked alliance leaders to focus on CA elections and six parties were agreed to held the election by mid April, which was opposed by Maoist,'' Arjun Narsingh KC, Spokesperson of Nepali Congress told reporter after the meeting.

He said that Maoist's leaders urged the other leaders to implement the house directives before going for the elections.

The meeting however, agreed to find out a political consensus among the seven political parties within a week.

Meanwhile the winter session of interim parliament will begin from today amid continued differences among the main political parties over the implementation of the directives issued to the government at the end of the special session on November 4.

The session is likely to be marked by new rounds of meetings even if that means stalling the parliamentary proceedings, as the Nepali Congress refused to implement the directives issued by Speaker Subas Nembang at the end of the special session.

UNI