Nepali Congress chooses Indian style democracy

Kathmandu, March 14 (UNI) The Nepali Congress has proposed an Indian style democracy in the Himalyan nation with the executive power vested in the Prime Minister while having a ceremonial President.

Proposing to introduce a democratic federal republican system after the polls on April 10, the party in its manifesto yesterday said Constituent Assembly, elected with the people's fresh mandate, would draft a new constitution through the consensus of all the political parties, to make it more democratic and progressive.

In its 23-page manifesto, the NC proposed that the country would have a President elected democratically by the national and regional parliaments like in India, while the Prime Minister would be the executive head of the country.

Central member of the party, Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat, said the party would table a proposal to abolish the monarchy at the first meeting of the CA, respecting the mandate of Janaandolan-2.

The CPN-UML has already said the Prime Minister should be elected through direct voting while the Maoists want an executive president.

Central and regional parliaments would also be elected through a mixed electoral system and the governments at the regional level would be formed under the principle of inclusion. The NC has proposed a bicameral legislature at the centre and unicameral legislatures in the regions.

The party said in the manifesto that the constitution drafted by the sovereign people would be supreme and guarantee all human rights, fundamental rights and the civil and political rights of the people.

The NC emphasised that the new state system should reflect the country's ethnic, religious, cultural and geographical diversity. It has proposed that future autonomous units in the federal system would be drawn on the basis of geographical situation, demography and lingual and cultural concentration as well as political and administrative feasibility.

''Besides, there will be decentralised and autonomous local bodies,'' the NC manifesto stated. The party manifesto proposed that all mother tongues would be given recognition as national languages.

Nepali would be the official language at the Center as well as the link language while the other languages would be regional official languages. ''The regional Parliament will decide which language should be used as the official language of the region,'' the manifesto said.

UNI XC SYU BST1330