PM Baburam Bhattarai as he addresses the nation at midnight, announcing fresh CA elections

The government has announced that it will hold a fresh election to the Constituent Assembly on 22 November after the political parties failed to forge consensus even after hours of discussions.

This announcement was made by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai after a meeting of the Council of Ministers at his office late Sunday night, in an address to the nation.

Talking to the media following the Cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Barshaman Pun said the meeting took a decision on election and begged apology from the people for not being able to formulate the constitution in the slated date. “The decision to go for election has been made as per the government’s conclusion that the UCPN (Maoist) and the Madhesi Front alone could not take the unpalatable decision of extending the term of the Constituent Assembly in absence of agreement between the parties,” he said.

Minister Pun stated that the this decision had to be taken under compulsion as the other the political parties did not want to go for a transformed Legislature-Parliament or extend the term of the CA by imposing an emergency.

At a meeting of the Council of Ministers during the last hours of the CA deadline, PM Bhattarai had proposed a fresh election to the Constituent Assembly on 22 November. Emerging from the Cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Ishwor Pokhrel accused the PM of announcing election date without holding discussions with other parties and boycotted the meeting.

The Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML have expressed grave concern over the government’s decision to declare the date of elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA) on coming 22 November and dubbed the move ‘unconstitutional’.

The decision is now awaiting the President’s stamp.