May 17, 2018-Eight months after the initial agreement between the CPN- UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) on a party unity, the two ruling left parties have reached closer to sealing the deal. The announcement will be made on Thursday.
Two separate meetings—UML’s standing committee and Maoist Centre’s headquarter—on Wednesday evening decided to seal the merger. The new party will be known as ‘Nepal Communist Party’.
The breakthrough deal came after a two-hour-long meeting between Prime Minister and UML Chairman KP Oli and Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Wednesday morning.
Then UML’s standing committee meeting and Maoist Centre’s headquarter meeting closed the deal.
Oli and Dahal agreed to announce the merger on Thursday, coinciding with the 25th death anniversary of former UML general secretary Madan Bhandari.
As per the agreement, the new party will have 441-member central committee—with 241 members from the UML and 200 from the Maoist Centre.
It will have a 43-member standing committee with 25 UML representatives and 18 from the Maoist Centre. The party will have ‘Sun’ as its electoral symbol that has been used by the UML for long.
The Party Unification Coordination Committee (PUCC) has called a meeting on Thursday to resolve any ideological issues related to the unification. Both parties will dissolve their respective central committees before registering the new party with the Election Commission.
“UML’s standing committee meeting and Maoist Centre’s headquarter meeting have decided to finalise the party merger,” confirmed senior Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha.
Addressing the media after the standing committee meeting, UML Secretary Yogesh Bhattarai said the the unification process of the two major leftist force in the country has come to the home stretch.
“The UML standing committee’s decision is historic not only for Nepal but also for all our well-wishers across the world,” he added.
The UML and Maoist Centre decided to accept Oli and Dahal as the joint chairmen of the new party until the general convention.
Oli and Dahal are scheduled to address a function at Madan Nagar, Balkhu, at 8:30 on Thursday morning where they will formally announce the merger. That will be followed by a PUCC meeting at Baluwatar at 10am.
The PUCC will prepare the final text, including the political and ideological documents of the new party, according to Maoist leader Shrestha.
“The PUCC meeting will take necessary decisions to ensure the unification process is concluded by Thursday,” UML Vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam said.
Top leaders of the UML and Maoist Centre are scheduled to visit the Election Commission at around 3pm to register the new party and will hold a press conference at the City Hall at around 5pm.
UML Secretary Bhattarai said the PUCC meeting will prepare party manifesto and statute. “If these tasks are completed on time, we visit the Election Commission tomorrow [Thursday],” he said.
Both parties have agreed to accept the role of the decade-long Maoist’s People’s War and peaceful struggle of the UML in the past decade in their political document.
On the ideological issue, the two parties have agreed to highlight the positive aspects of Janata ko Baudaliya Janabad (People’s Multi-party Democracy), currently undertaken by the UML, and Janabad of the 21st century, the guiding principles of the Maoist party and create a new ideological framework.
The UML secretary said the decision on the party’s guiding principle would be taken up by the general convention.
“The interim political report will, however, mention Samajbad unmukh Janatako Janabad (socialism-oriented people’s democracy),” he said, adding that the party’s political ideology will ensure multi-party system, pluralism, press freedom, human rights and environment for holding timely periodic elections.
Left parties in historic deal
source:www.kathmandupost.ekantipur.com
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