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Posts tagged as “parties”

Expanding 14-Party Alliance: AL’s left partners say ‘no’ to Islamist parties

by Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee/Ashik Abdullah Apu in The Daily Star, Mar 14, 2023Left-leaning parties in the ruling Awami League-led 14-party alliance yesterday took a firm stance against any possible inclusion of Islamist political parties in the combine. Even an Islamist political party, Bangladesh Tariqat Federation, opposed inclusion of any other Islamist party in the alliance. Partners of the 14-party alliance expressed their reservations in this regard at a meeting at the New Eskaton house of…

Three regional parties join hands. Many see it as an alliance against Yadav

by Tika R Pradhan in The Kathmandu Post, Mar 13, 2023On Saturday, three parties based in the Tarai—Mahantha Thakur-led Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, CK Raut’s Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party of Ranjita Shrestha—forged a working alliance vowing to press ahead with their common agenda. To start with, they have fielded their own candidate for the Vice President election. This pits Mamata Jha against the ruling coalition’s official candidate in which they are also the constituents…

Under strain, govt may go for inclusive polls

by Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee & Porimol Palma in Daily Star, Feb 23, 2023Feeling the pressure from the West for fair and participatory polls and the economic stress at home, the government may go all out to get the BNP and like-minded parties to participate in the next national election. Even though the Awami League decided to dominate the streets and have counter programmes for the BNP’s agitations, it is considering behind-the-scene talks with the opposition…

Why the sudden need to ‘strengthen’ coalition?

by Tika R Pradhan and Purushottam Poudel in The Kathmandu Post, Feb 13, 2023As differences persist between the CPN (Maoist Centre) and the CPN-UML over the candidate for President, ruling alliance parties have started doubting the longevity of their partnership. A meeting of the ruling parties held at the prime minister’s residence at Baluwatar on Sunday failed to make any headway in the dispute with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal sticking to his proposal of…

AL’s counter-programmes reveal its own insecurities

by Mohammad Al-Masum Molla inThe Daily Star, Feb 12, 2023is important for a political party to tolerate and respect other parties. When we see that the ruling Awami League lacks such qualities, it becomes evident that Bangladesh’s oldest political party is going through a critical phase. One might wonder why I am saying “critical” when the party has been in power for the third consecutive term. When the BNP started holding divisional rallies protesting against…

High-level mechanism to discuss presidential election

by Nishan Khatiwada in The Kathmandu Post, February 9, 2023Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli have agreed to hold a meeting of the High-Level Political Mechanism, a body comprising the chiefs of the seven parties in the ruling coalition, soon. The two top leaders, who held a one-on-one at Oli’s residence in Balkot on Wednesday morning, also agreed to discuss the presidential election at the upcoming meeting of the mechanism,…

Will Maoist Centre ditch the UML for Congress?

by Tika R Pradhan in The Kathmandu Post, Feb 5, 2023The ruling CPN (Maoist Centre) has decided to coordinate with ‘like-minded’ parties for the presidential election if major parties decline its proposal of finding a candidate based on national consensus. According to some leaders, this decision was taken by the party’s Standing Committee meeting that concluded on Saturday. With this decision, the Maoist Centre seems to be inching closer to Nepali Congress while distancing itself…

RSP and RPP chip away at Madhesh parties’ bargaining power

by Nishan Khatiwada in The Kathmandu Post, Jan 21, 2023The newcomer Rastriya Swatantra Party’s unexpected success and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s impressive comeback in the November elections have sharply curtailed the Madhesh-based parties’ bargaining power in ongoing power-sharing negotiations. Among the Madhesh-based parties, so far only the Janamat Party has joined the government led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and it too is not happy with its share in the Cabinet. Janamat Party chair CK Raut’s…

Elections in a time of terror

By Murtaza Solangi in The News, Jan 19, 2023The writer is a journalist.We are in election year again. Ten years back around this time we were in election mode when the terrorism unleashed by the TTP impacted the electioneering and deprived the Awami National Party and Pakistan Peoples Party, two mainstream secular parties from electioneering, especially in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to government reports at that time, 437 people were killed in over…

UML optimistic on longevity of current ruling coalition

by Purushottam Poudel in The Kathmandu Post, Jan 16, 2023As top leaders from the two major ruling coalition partners—the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre)—seemed to be harbouring suspicion at each other, some leaders from the parties, however, have said that the relations between the two sides haven’t worsened as perceived in the public. Leaders of the CPN-UML, the largest partner in the ruling coalition, smelt a rat mainly after the Nepali Congress, which was…

Little progress in Janata Samajbadi, Unified Socialist merger talks

by Nishan Khatiwada in The Kathmandu Post, .January 14th, 2023The task forces of the Janata Samajbadi Party and the CPN (Unified Socialist) formed to negotiate a unification between the two parties met on Thursday. Soon after the November election results were out, both the parties had begun talks on the possibilities of a unity between the two organisations. They are trying to clinch an agreement on the party ideology, party name and leadership, say the…