report in The Himalayan Times, Oct 24, 2022 at 02:01 pm
• PSP MANIFESTO Directly elected prez, primary election and right to recall’ among other agendas, included
Former prime minister and Chairman of People’s Socialist Party Baburam Bhattarai has said that there are policy and ideological discrepancies in the CPN-Maoist Centre on some issues.
Bhattarai’s party is heading for the upcoming election of the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly with the election symbol of the Maoist Centre. Addressing the event announcing the manifesto of the party today, he said, “Currently, we have some policy and ideological differences,” adding, “Due to this reason, we have issued separate manifestos.”
Bhattarai said the party would be united with the Maoist Centre after the election, but unity would be on the condition of forming a new party and not merging with the Maoists.
“After the election, there is need for a new kind of polarisation in the country. This is not the case only with the Maoists and us,” said Bhattarai.
There are also indications that the old party will not remain in its previous form.
After the election, the situation will become more stable.
The People’s Socialist Party has emphasised the amendment of the constitution in its manifesto. In this regard, Bhattarai said they had the same opinion on the form of the government and the electoral system regarding how many votes would be shared with the Maoists.
“The current form of government is not suitable and even the opposition party has a formal position that it should go to a direct presidential system,” he said to the mass media.
“There is no agreement with some other parties.” Following debate and discussion, there will be an agreement on directly elected executive and fully proportional representation.
Although there is a lot of potential in the manifesto, considering that there has not been much change in the economic and social status of the Nepali people, two steps have been suggested to solve the problem – first being the democratisation of democracy through constitutional amendment and second has to do with state management through advanced socialist system.
The PSP believes that democracy being practised currently is a limited and formal type of democracy. “Democracy will not be strong, capable and effective unless all the citizens within the country are truly empowered. In order to transform this formal democracy into a full democracy, the current constitution should be amended to include a directly elected presidential system, states the PSP’s manifesto.
The PSP has presented 10 resolutions for the democratisation of democracy. The federal restructuring of the state, internal democracy, directly elected president and head of state, independent formation of the cabinet, legislative role of parliamentarians, equitable inclusion, separation of powers, referendum, right to reject and right to recall, and financial transparency have been included.
In order to strengthen inter-party democracy of the parties, the PSP has resolved that a party law will be created which requires all the parties to hold primary elections at all levels for the nomination of election candidates. A system of directly elected president in the union and directly elected head of state will be established and one person will not serve more than two terms as president.
Similarly, the directly elected executive can form his/her cabinet freely from experts and important figures of the nation, wherein MPs should be limited to legislative roles.
The election of a fully proportional Parliament is based on a list where priorities and inclusion are clear at both the federal and provincial levels.
In the manifesto, the commitment to ‘Right to Reject’ and ‘Right to Recall’ have also been expressed. “Right to reject and right to recall will be provided in the election law,” says the manifesto. https://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/political-ideological-discrepancy-still-persists
