Nepal’s seven-party alliance government and the Maoist rebels are close to a peace deal with both the sides agreeing on 95 percent of political issues, writes Ameet Dhakal on The Kathmandu Post.
Here is the full report published on Friday’s issue of the Post:
Nepali Congress (NC) and Maoist leaders are busy giving the finishing touches to political agreements reached and are narrowing their differences over the issue of arms management. 
The NC and Maoists leaders held a crucial meeting Wednesday to sharpen their understandings on political issues reached during the last summit talks. One political leader involved in the meeting said they have reached agreement on almost 95 percent of the political issues and have even documented this.

On monarchy

The leaders have agreed that the fate of the monarchy will be decided by the first meeting of the constituent assembly. However, the documented agreement doesn’t say whether the decision will be  by a simple or a two-third majority. Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai said that a simple majority of the constituent assembly would take the decision. Though the CPN-UML was insisting on a referendum to decide the issue, one of its leaders said it would not insist on that should the rest of the parties reach a consensus.

NC, UML, Maoists to get ‘almost equal’ seats in 300-member interim legislature

The interim legislative body will have 300 members. NC, UML and the Maoists will have “almost equal” number of members. Currently, the NC has 75 seats in the House of Representatives and the upper house combined while the UML has 73. The Maoists are likely to get the same number of seats in the interim legislative as the UML.        
The major political parties will re-nominate all sitting lawmakers in the incumbent House of Representatives and the National Assembly. They will also nominate some of the senior Seven-Party Alliance (SPA) leaders who are not in the present parliament, but  sitting lawmakers who supported “regression” will not be nominated to the interim legislative body. The interim legislature  will be automatically dissolved after the first meeting of the constituent assembly.      

23-member interim cabinet,  5 ministries each to NC, UML, Maoists  

The interim cabinet will have about 23 members. Excluding the prime minister, the NC, UML and Maoists will get five ministries each. NC (D) will get 3 to 5 ministries. The rest will be divided among other parties. The division of portfolios hasn’t been fully discussed yet.    

425-member constituent assembly

The Constituent Assembly (CA) will have 425 seats. The CA election will be of mixed proportionate type. 205 members in the CA will be directly elected from the existing constituencies, another 204 will be nominated by the political parties in proportion to the popular votes they garner during the CA polls. For the 204 seats, the leaders have agreed to consult election experts if double ballot polling would be a better alternative. The prime minister will nominate the remaining 16 members. The CA will also function as the legislature for about two years until full fledged parliamentary elections takes place. 

On CA polls, the Maoists and the UML had favored a proportionate system but the NC wanted a direct vote. In the end a compromise was reached with mixed proportionate elections.  

King’s property to be nationalized

Dr Shekhar Koirala, one of the key NC negotiators, said the NC and the Maoists have also reached and documented a crucial agreement on the issue of royal property. According to him, property that belonged to the late King Birendra and his family will be put under a trust, and it will be used for welfare activities. The property inherited by King Gyanendra by virtue of ascending the throne will be nationalized. However, the king’s personal property will remain with him. This means properties like Narayanhiti Palace and Nagarjuna Palace will become national property while shares in Hotel Soaltee and the like will remain with the king’s family. Similarly, the leaders have also agreed that the two daughters of the late Princess Shruti will get some share of the late King Birendra’s property. However, this agreement has not been documented.
Citizenship issue

On the citizenship issue, the NC and the Maoists are on the same page while the UML has a slightly different take. The NC and Maoists want all those born in Nepal before 1990 or have been residing in Nepal since then to be eligible for Nepali citizenship. The UML wants 1979, the year of the national referendum, as the cut off year. “But that’s not a big issue and an agreement will be reached without any difficulty,” said a UML leader.

When asked if it was true that the aforementioned political agreement had been reached, Dr. Bhattarai said, “We haven’t exactly sealed the deal but what you said is true.”

But there is one caveat to the above agreement: All the parties have agreed to these political deals provided they will be part of a comprehensive package that will address the arms issue. Both Dr Bhattarai and Dr Koirala said this agreement will have no meaning if the parties and the Maoists fail to agree on the issue of arms management.
Arms management still tricky

The NC and Maoist negotiators have not made any tangible progress on the technicalities of arms management. The only thing they have agreed after the last summit talks is to form a Commission (or a Committee) under the cabinet that will work on the issues of reform in the Nepali Army, integration of the rebels into the national army and rehabilitation of the remaining combatants. 

But there seems to be growing confidence that they can reach an agreement. Dr Koirala said, “Talks on the issue are also very positive.” Asked when the country should expect a breakthrough, he said, “We have agreed that we should start a new political calendar by the first of Mangsir (November 17) but I expect a breakthrough much earlier than that, possibly by next week.”

When asked about the possibility of a comprehensive agreement, Dr Bhattarai said, “We have agreed that the interim government should be in place by mid-November.”