TALK OF BREAKTHROUGH HAS POSITIVE IMPACT ON SHARE PRICES Kathmandu, 16 Dec.: Assurances of a breakthrough agreement to end a prolonged political crisis by Monday has an immediate positive impact on the stock market. After the market opened, stock prices gained 8.98 points Sunday on the first day weekly five-day trading and again crossed the 500 point mark. An hour before the market was to close, Nepse index rose to 505.9 points. Nnnn GACHCHHARAR ALSO CONSULTS PRESIDENT Kathmandu, 16 Dec.: : President Dr Ram Baran Yadav was called on by Coordinator of United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) and Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar at the Rastrapati Bhawan, Sheetal Niwas, Sunday morning to discuss the present political stalemate, RSS reports.. On the occasion, the President asked for support on part of the UDMF in course of constituting a national consensus government, Gachchhadar told RSS after the meeting. In an hour-long meeting, he had assured the President to make maximum efforts to enable environment for the formation of national consensus government and put own stance that package deal should be explored in regard to various issues including election, Gachchhadar further said. He noted that it would take extra one week to build consensus on various contentious issues including the formation of government. Nnnn DEUBA URGES CONSENSUS Kathmandu, 16 Dec.:: Senior leader of the Nepali Congress, Sher Bahadur Deuba, expressed the hope that political consensus would be forged soon and the nation would get a way out from the current political transition, RSS reports.. Speaking at an interaction organized by the Reporters´ Club at NC leader Deuba´s residence in Budhanilkantha in the capital on Sunday, he said the supreme power of the country were the people and stressed the need of moving as per public mandate after the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections. NC leader Deuba said that he was in the line of reinstating the CA by forging consensus in the content of the constitution and expressed his dissatisfaction for not being so. He said, "There is no dispute in the republican and federalism among the political parties, the majority of the political parties are committed to republicanism and federalism. The other issues should be decided by the people by taking fresh mandate." There is no alternative to political consensus and the Unified CPN (Maoist) as the largest political party in the country, would take initiative to forge consensus, said Deuba. "The political consensus for the national unity government should be formed within the time frame provided by the President," he said and made it clear that he was not in the race of Prime Minister and that is why he proposed NC President Sushil Koirala as the candidate for the post. "It is the united voice of NC," he added. Nnnn MUNICIPALITY DECLARATION NOT IMPLEMENTED BY GOVT. Kathmandu, 16 Dec.: Arrangement regarding municipality has not yet come into force though a year has elapsed since the government declared 'Kohalpur Municipality' by merging Kohalpur and Rajhena VDCs of Banke district, RSS reports from Nepalgunj.. The municipality was declared at a time when the government had decided to add 41 new municipalities at the start of last fiscal year. Local people, who had welcomed the government's decision of declaring municipalities with pump and show, now turned to be flustered with no administrative implementation of the declaration. With the declaration of municipality, the area witnessed upsurge in the establishment of branches of various banks, factory, industry and enterprises and transaction of real estate However, uncertainty looms large when the structure of municipality was not set up during the period of a year. Nnnn ISLAMISTS SCORE NARROW WIN IN EGYPT Kathmandu, 16 Dec.: Egyptians voted narrowly in favour of a constitution shaped by Islamists and which opponents said was a recipe for deepening divisions in the nation, officials in rival camps said on Sunday after the first round of a two-stage Referendum, Reuters reports from Cairo.. The result based on unofficial tallies, if confirmed for this round and repeated in Saturday's second stage, may give Islamist President Mohamed Mursi limited cause for celebration as it shows the wide rift in Egypt at a time when he needs to build consensus on tough measures to heal a fragile economy. Official results are not expected till after the next round. Mursi and his backers say the constitution is vital to move Egypt's democratic transition forward. Opponents say the basic law is too Islamist and tramples on minority rights, including those of Christians who make up 10 percent of the population. The build-up to Saturday's vote was marred by deadly protests. Demonstrations erupted last month when Mursi awarded himself sweeping powers and then fast-tracked the constitution through an assembly dominated by his Islamist allies. The vote passed off peacefully with long queues forming in Cairo and other cities and towns where this round of voting was held. The vote was staggered because many judges needed to oversee polling staged a boycott to voice their opposition. But late on Saturday, as polls were closing, Islamists attacked the offices of the liberal opposition Wafd party newspaper, a party that was part of the National Salvation Front coalition that pushed for a "no" vote. "The referendum was 56.5 percent for the 'yes' vote," a senior official in the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party operations room set up to monitor voting told Reuters. The Brotherhood and its party, which propelled Mursi to power in a June election, had representatives at almost all polling stations across the 10 areas, including Cairo, where this round of voting was held. The official, who asked not to be identified, said the tally was based on counts from more than 99 percent of polling stations in this round. One opposition official also said the vote appeared to have gone in favour of Islamists who backed the constitution, after the opposition had previously said late on Saturday when voting ended that their exit polls indicated the "no" camp would win. Another opposition official had suggested as counting proceeded through the night that the vote would be "very close". Even a narrow loss could hearten leftists, socialists, Christians and more liberal-minded Muslims who make up the disparate opposition camp, which has been beaten in two elections since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year. They were drawn together to oppose what they saw as Mursi's power grab and his constitution push. Their National Salvation Front includes prominent figures such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa and firebrand leftist Hamdeen Sabahy. If the constitution is approved, a parliamentary election will follow early next year. Opposition leaders say the Front could help unite the opposition for that poll after their divided ranks have split the vote in previous elections. But analysts questions whether the group in this form will survive to a parliamentary election. The Islamist-dominated lower house of parliament elected earlier this year was dissolved based on a court order in June. Violence in Cairo and other cities has plagued the run-up to the referendum. At least eight people were killed when rival camps clashed during demonstrations outside the presidential palace earlier this month. Several party buildings belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood's party have been burned by angry protesters. 'MOVE ON' On Friday, a day before the vote, rival factions armed with clubs, knives and swords fought in the streets of Alexandria. Opposition supporters trapped a Muslim preacher inside his mosque after he called for a "yes" vote. "The sheikhs (preachers) told us to say 'yes' and I have read the constitution and I liked it," said Adel Imam, 53, as he queued to vote in Cairo on Saturday. "The country will move on." Echoing the views of many Christians, Michael Nour, a 45-year-old Christian teacher in Alexandria, said: "I voted 'no' to the constitution out of patriotic duty. The constitution does not represent all Egyptians." In order to pass, the constitution must be approved by more than 50 percent of voters who cast ballots. A little more than half of Egypt's electorate of 51 million were eligible to vote in the first round. Rights groups reported some abuses, such as polling stations opening late, officials telling people to vote "yes," bribery and intimidation. But Gamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, which is monitoring the vote, said nothing reported so far was serious enough to invalidate the referendum. Islamists have been counting on their disciplined ranks of supporters and the many Egyptians desperate for an end to turmoil that has hammered the economy and sent Egypt's pound to eight-year lows against the dollar. Howaida Abdel Azeem, a post office employee, said: "I said 'yes' because I want the destruction the country is living through to be over and the crisis to pass." If the constitution is voted down, a new assembly will have to be formed to draft a revised version, a process that could take up to nine months. The army has deployed about 120,000 troops and 6,000 tanks and armoured vehicles to protect polling stations and other government buildings. While the military backed Mubarak and his predecessors, it has not intervened in the present crisis. nnnn