Nepal talks stuck on head of state, national animal

NEPAL: Nepal's Maoists and the ruling political alliance will resume talks to iron out differences over several issues including whether the king should remain interim head of state until elections to a constituent assembly.

The two sides have been in talks since Wednesday to prepare the draft of an interim constitution ahead of next year's planned elections for a special assembly which would be tasked to write a new constitution for Nepal. But differences have delayed a deal.

"We have made a list of about dozen points of disagreements including who will be the head of state during the interim period," Ram Chandra Poudel, senior leader of the Nepali Congress party, the biggest group in the alliance, told Reuters.

Poudel said the rebels are demanding that the prime minister who leads the government should also be the head of state in the interim period and not King Gyanendra, who has lost most of his powers since being forced to hand power to political parties after street protests in April.

But some parties in the alliance want the monarch to remain as a figurative head of state until the elections.

The political parties involved in the negotiations are also wrangling over whether the cow should remain the national animal.

"Other differences include whether to retain the cow as the national animal, type of ballot papers to be used in the elections, guarantee for education, health as well as employment," he said.

Poudel said some parties in the seven-party alliance have suggested the endangered Asian rhinoceros should replace the cow as Nepal's national animal.

Maoist rebels blamed the political parties for the delay but said the hiccups would not wreck the peace process.

"They want to delay on one pretext or the other but people want an early interim constitution so that constituent assembly elections are held in time," rebel negotiator Dinanath Sharma told Reuters.

"We will continue to press for early constitution but we will not leave the peace process," he added.

The interim constitution will pave the way for the Maoists to join an interim parliament in which they will hold 73 out of 330 legislative seats.

The two sides struck a historic peace deal last month formally declaring an end to a 10-year anti-monarchy Maoist insurgency in which more than 13,000 people have been killed.

KATHMANDU, Friday, Reuters