The visiting former US president Jimmy Carter held a series of parleys with political leaders as well as army chief on Friday morning.
Carter held half-an-hour long meeting with the Chief of Army Staff, Nepali Army (NA) General Rookmangud Katawal at Army Headquarters.
According to Brigadier General Ramindra Chhetri, the chief of the Directorate for Public Relations of NA, the talks focused on “existing situation of peace and security in the country.”
Former president Carter and general secretary of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal shaking hands. Photo courtesy : The Carter Center
He also held meetings with general secretary of Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali Congress (NC-Democratic) leaders Gopal Man Shrestha and Prakash Man Singh; and president of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Pashupati SJB Rana.
Reports say the former US president inquired the political leaders about their commitment towards holding Constituent Assembly elections and about the law and order situation.
The political leaders told him that they were firm in their commitment to hold the CA elections on time.
Later in the afternoon, Carter is scheduled to meet with Maoist chairman Prachanda.
The Legislature-Parliament, on Thursday, approved the Constituent Assembly Members Election Bill – a crucial electoral legislation.
The newly enacted Bill allocates proportional seats to women, Dalit, Madhesis, Janajatis and others for the 240 seats set aside for proportional representation-based elections during the CA.
Of the total 497 seats of CA, 240 each have been set aside for first-past-the-post and PR based elections. The remaining 17 members will be nominated by the cabinet.
And in the 240 seats allocated for PR-based elections, the new Act states that 50 percent will be given for women in terms of total candidates. Correspondingly, for Madhesi men and women, 15.6 percent each have been set aside. For Dalits men and women, 6.5 percent each have been allocated and for ethnic Janajatis men and women 18.9 percent each have been set aside. Two percent each have been allocated for men and women, respectively, of backward region and 15.1 percent each have been earmarked for men and women from ‘other’ category. The PR-based elections will follow the closed (list) system model.
The enacted Bill also includes provision whereby those who occupied political positions during last year’s Jana Andolan II and who have been named in the Rayamajhi Commission report as suppressors of Jana Andolan II will be barred from taking part in the CA elections.
The enacted Bill includes provision whereby a political party cannot field its candidates in less than 10 percent of seats.
Nine districts have been named as backward region including Achham, Kalikot, Jajarkot, Jumla, Dolpa, Bajhang, Bajura, Mugu, and Humla.
Earlier, the State Affairs Committee (SAC) of the Legislative Parliament had, on Thursday, passed the crucial Bill and submitted the same to the parliament for approval.
After exhaustive deliberations that continued for days, the SAC had given its seal of approval on the crucial bill.
The World Bank has appointed Susan Goldmark its new country director for Nepal.
Susan Goldmark
Susan Goldmark
She will succeed Kenichi Ohashi, who served in the position since 2000. Ohashi, meanwhile, will take up the position of country director for Ethiopia and Sudan.
According to the WB, Goldmark was selected through a Bank-wide competitive managerial selection process. She will assume office as a country director from July 1st.
Commenting on her appointment, Goldmark said, “When I was a 20 year old student I lived in Nepal and was captivated by the country’s peoples, cultures and beauty. I feel privileged and excited to be returning at this time of both promise and challenges. I look forward to supporting the goals of peace and development in Nepal.”
She had joined the Bank in 1988 as a Private Sector Development specialist in the Africa Region and since then has held various positions including sector manager for the Finance, Private Sector Development and Energy clusters in the Latin America and Caribbean Region.
The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal) have launched investigation into the killing of two leaders of the Maoist-aligned Young Communist League (YCL) in Rupandehi.
The UNMIN and OHCHR investigation sent their teams to Rupandehi to Rupandehi to probe the murder of YCL central committee member Binod Panta and Rupandehi district committee member Sheshmani Lamichhane on Wednesday, allegedly by the activists of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF).
In a press statement Thursday, UNMIN condemned the killings and called on authorities to make urgent efforts to bring those responsible to justice.
The UNMIN also confirmed that the second-phase verification of the Maoist combatants had been postponed at the request of the CPN (Maoist) following the killing of YCL leaders.
The UN mission also stated that it expected that the second stage verification would proceed in the next few days.
The Confucius Institute has been established in Kathmandu University with the joint efforts of the China’s Hebei University of Economics and Business and the Kathmandu University on Wednesday.
The establishment was approved by the Office of the Chinese Language Council International on May 16 this year. The Hebei Economic and Trade University has been given the authority to manage Chinese language and culture programmes for the institute.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Education and Sports Ministry Pradip Nepal the establishment of the institute would help Nepali students learn Chinese language and understand Chinese culture to strengthen the bilateral relationship, and promote the communication in the fields of education, culture and tourism.
Wang Ying, the president of Hebei University of Economics and Business said the institute would provide favourable conditions for Nepali students to learn Chinese language, to fully understand China and provide a platform for economic development, international exchange, and multivariate cooperation between the two universities and the two countries.
Suresh Raj Sharma, vice-chancellor of Kathmandu University, said as a not-for-profit public body, Confucius Institute will provide quality education in the areas crucial for Nepal’s development such as health sciences, engineering, energy studies, environmental science, biotechnology, pharmaceutical science and other natural sciences, management studies, teacher education and many areas of arts.
Unidentified persons hurled a bomb at the residence of former Minister of State for Information and Communication Shrish SJB Rana at 1 am, Thursday.
The blast caused minor damages at window panes at the ground floor of the house, which is located in Bishalnagar, Kathmandu. A motorcycle parked at the premises was also damaged.
Police say unidentified persons hurled socket bomb at the rented house of Rana who used to be the Information Minister during the royal regime.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bomb explosion yet.
Former US president Jimmy Carter, who arrived in Kathmandu on a four-day visit Wednesday, held series of high profile meetings today.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala shaking hands with visiting former US President Jimmy Carter after meeting the PM at his official residence in Baluwatar, Thursday, June 14 07. nepalnews.com/rh
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala shaking hands with visiting former US President…
Carter met with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at the latter’s residence in Baluwatar and discussed the ongoing peace process and the upcoming constituent assembly election. He also held separate meetings with Chief Election Commissioner Bhojraj Pokharel and UNMIN chief Ian Martin.
Emerging out of the meeting with Koirala, the former US president praised Koirala’s role in restoring democracy and peace in Nepal. “Koirala is a hero for me,” Carter said.
He also said he expressed his concern over holding free and fair CA election.
The two octogenarians held half-hour long meeting from 9:30 am. Carter did not respond to most of the queries of journalists gathered outside the PM’s residence.
Carter met with CEC Pokharel at the Election Commission and shared ideas on how CA polls could be conducted in a free and fair manner. Briefly talking to reporters, Cater said there was a need to improve security for free and fair polls.
The Carter Center, a non-profit global organisation working for peace and democracy, which was co-founded by Carter, has deployed a team of election monitors in Nepal since March this year.
Meanwhile, the former president also held discussion with Ian Martin at The Carter Center’s office. The meeting was focused mainly on the UN’s role in the peace process and CA polls.
While in Kathmandu, Carter is scheduled to meet top political leaders including Maoist chairman Prachanda, UML general secretary Madhav Nepal, army chief Rukmangud Katawal, diplomats and representatives of the civil society.
The meeting between Carter and Prachanda is taking place at a time when the US still places the Maoists in its terror watch list.
National Front for Democracy, a coalition of Bhutanese political parties struggling for the rights and respectful repatriation of the Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal Wednesday said the Bhutanese refugees’ ‘Long March’ campaign has been deferred for a month. The postponement of the campaign – a drive to repatriate Bhutanese refugees back to their country – was announced in a statement which was signed by the party president Thinley Pinjore.
“Earlier the return-home campaign had been postponed till Friday (June 15) after a meeting that was held among Jhapa CDO, representatives of the eight political parties and Bhutanese Refugees’ Organisations and the Darjeeling district magistrate, in Panitanki of India on May 28. Now, it has been deferred for a month,” the statement said.
The statement further said that the repatriation campaign had been postponed for a month in the light of India’s positive remark on the issue and also urged refugees to wait for a month.
Hridayesh Tripathy (File Photo)
Hridayesh Tripathy
(File Photo)
Former Minister and general secretary of Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP-Anandidevi) Hridayesh Tripathy has announced his dissociation from the party executive committee.
Stating that the recent unity between NSP and NSP-A was not transparent, Tripathy has announced that he will step down from the position of member of interim national executive committee of the unified NSP-A.
Issuing a statement on Wednesday, Tripathy said that he will continue to struggle against ‘undemocratic, opportunist and conspiratorial’ politics within the party in his capacity as its ordinary member.
Tripathy said that while he had worked hard to bring about the unity between NSP and NSP-A, the recent unity between the two took place in a sudden manner while he was out of the country.
Earlier, vice president of NSP-A Bharat Bimal Yadav, too, had dissociated himself from the party expressing dissatisfaction over the unity.
The NSP and NSP-A have merged and the unified party is named as NSP-A.
The government has said that it cannot agree with the demand for ethnicity-based proportional representation electoral system and ensure one representative for every ethnic group.
The meeting between the government talks team led by Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel and Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NFIN), on Wednesday, got stuck on this point.
The two sides later agreed to hold next meeting after 15 days allowing for ‘additional homework and preparations.’
Poudel later said the understanding could not be reached on the demand of one group one representative and ethnic population based PR system. “There are problems with that,” he said.
Poudel said, “There are over 100 ethnic groups in the country and if all of them are to be represented, the Constituent Assembly will be more of an ethnic assembly and less of a political assembly.”
On the other hand, NFIN talks team has accused the government of moving backwards on their earlier promises.