General Secretary of the CPN-UML, one of the major constituents of the ruling seven party alliance, Madhav Kumar Nepal, has said that the interim constitution should be finalized as soon as possible to hold the election of the constituent assembly.

Speaking at a programme in the capital, general secretary Nepal said that the seven party alliance and the Maoists should immediately resolve the issues that are yet to be settled to hold elections to a constituent assembly by mid-April 2007.

He also called on the alliance and the Maoist leadership to leave contentious issues aside while adopting the interim statute as the issues would further delay the CA elections.

“It is unnecessary to get bogged down on the contentious issues over the statute as all the political parties would go to the people during the CA elections with their position. He also hoped there would not be any complication in finalising the interim statute,” reports quoted Nepal as saying.

Speaking at the same programme, Nepali Congress general secretary Ram Chandra Poudel said his party wanted to go to the constituent assembly elections at the earliest.

“Adequate homework must be done before the CA elections are held, as we do not want to fall prey to another kind of autocracy in the name of holding the elections,” said Poudel.

Speaker Subash Nemwang said that the CA elections must be held as soon as possible by adopting the new interim constitution.