UML CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETS TO DISCUSS CH-LED ELECTION GOVT. Kathmandu, 15 Feb.: UML central committee is meeting in emergency sessions later Frdiay to discuss a controversial proposal to appoint an election n government headed by Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi to conduct constituent assembly elections in May. The opposition party ios divided over the proposal and the issue was referred to the committee Thursday by the standing committee. Nepal Bar Association (NBA) opposes the proposal along with former Chief Justice Anup Raj Sharma . The proposal, they say, is against the principle of separation of powers between executive, legislature and judiciary in a democratic structure. nnnn GODDESS SARASHWOTI WORSHUPPED, BASANTA PANCHAMI BEING OBSERVED Kathmandu, 15 Feb.: Devotees are thronging Sarashwoti temples since early Friday morning to worship The Goddess of Learning. Friday also marks the onset of spring or Basanta Panchami. President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav listens to the Basnta Shwawan or the recitation scripts heralding the onset of spring by priests at Hanuman Dhoka Royal Palace. Children write alphabets on slates to begin their education. The day is considered auspicious and marriages and bratabands are conducted without consulting astrologers. nnnn FRIDAY MORNING CAPITAL 7 DEGREES CELSIUS Kathmandu, 15 Feb.: Friday morning temperature at seven in the morning was 7 degrees Celsius. Mercury is expected to rise to rise to 24 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. Nnnn DEAL OF CJ-LED GOVT. CLOSE Kathmandu, 15 Feb.: Chances of forging consensus on forming a new government under Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi improved sharply on Thursday with top leaders of two major opposition parties -- Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML -- taking a more positive stance on the proposal floated by the ruling UCPN (Maoist), Kosh Raj Koiaala writes in Republica.. During a meeting with President Dr Ram Baran Yadav on Thursday afternoon, top leaders of the NC, UML, the ruling Maoists and the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) assured the head of state that they would reach consensus by Friday evening after UML endorses its standing committee decision to accept the leadership of the chief justice, through its central committee meeting scheduled for Friday morning. "A new government will be formed if our central committee meeting tomorrow [Friday] endorses the decision of the standing committee today [Thursday]," UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal told media after a four-party meeting with the president at Shital Niwas, Thursday afternoon. The meeting of top leaders of the four major parties with the president on Thursday had ended inconclusively after Khanal said he needed to formally endorse the standing committee decision through the party´s central committee. The top leaders of all four parties are scheduled to reach the president´s office at 2 pm on Friday for another meeting. "We are hopeful that our meeting on Friday will yield a positive result for resolving the deadlock. We are optimistic about reaching a political decision to form a mechanism for replacing the current government. Talks among the political parties so far are headed in a positive direction," said Maoist Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha, who is also deputy prime minister and foreign minister. Leaders involved in the inter-party negotiations said they are yet to finalize the modality of a new government under the chief justice. Discussions are underway whether to call the new head of government Chairman of Council of Minister or Chairman of the State Governing Council. Also, the parties are still at odds whether to have any representation from political parties in the proposed mechanism for holding fresh polls. "While some leaders have maintained that there should not be any representation from political parties, others have suggested such a decision would be risky as a mechanism exclusively of independent persons may not be able to deliver elections," a top leader told Republica. The parties also have differing positions on whether or not to ask the chief justice to resign from his post before he heads such a political mechanism. NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel told media persons after the meeting that they proposed holding discussions on other alternative candidates also besides the chief justice, for holding polls as per the mandate given by the party´s central working committee (CWC) meeting. "But the Maoist chairman declined to discuss other alternatives, saying time is running out to ensure polls by May-end," he said. A CWC meeting of the NC held on Wednesday had kept open all options, including independent persons, former chief justices and political party leaders, for the new prime ministerial candidate. Party leaders have decided to hold a meeting with President Yadav on Friday along with a ´technical team´ comprising lawyers from their respective parties to identity where they need to amend the Interim Constitution to facilitate new polls by May-end. The parties are then scheduled to ask the president to remove the constitutional difficulties in his capacity as head of state as there is no parliament to bring any amendment to the constitution into effect. Prez to endorse ordinance on Organized Crime President Dr Yadav has agreed to endorse an ordinance on Organized Crime as Nepal risks being blacklisted for not meeting conditions set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-money laundering body. According to Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shrestha, the issue of defering ordinances including the Organized Crime and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRC) and Disappearance Commission also surfaced during the four-party meeting with President Dr Yadav. "The president is likely to endorse the ordinance on organized crime Friday," he said. Though Nepal has already endorsed two out of the three bills-- Extradition Bill and Mutual Cooperation Bill, another bill -- Bill to Control Organized Crime -- failed to get parliament´s endorsement due to strong opposition from the Mohan Baidya faction of the then UCPN (Maoist). Officials said Nepal risks being placed in the dark grey area if it fails to endorse the ordinance some time soon as Nepal has already been put in the grey area for its failure to do so. Likewise, the government has agreed to forward a ´revised´ ordinace on TRC in view of concerns raised by the international community over its provision to grant ´general amnesty´ even to those involved in serious cases of human rights violation during the decade-long Maoist conflict. Nnnn UML TOP BRASS POSITIVE ON CJ-LED GOVT. Kathmandu, 15 Feb. A standing committee meeting of CPN-UML on Thursday concluded that an election government can be formed under the leadership of the sitting chief justice (CJ), Thira L. Bhusal writes in Republica.. “We at the standing committee meeting today [Thursday] concluded that we can go for the option of CJ-headed government for the holding election to the Constituent Assembly,” party secretary Bishnu Paudel told Republica. The party´s top body called an emergency central committee (CC) meeting for Friday with a view to taking CC members´ consent on the issue. Also, Chairman Jhalanath Khanal emerging from the president´s office later, told media persons that Friday´s CC meeting will pave the way for forming the new government if it endorses the standing committee´s decision. The UML top leaders took the decision two days after an overwhelming majority of the party´s central committee (CC) meeting rejected the proposal of forming an election government under the leadership of sitting chief justice. Prior to that, the CC meeting had decided to support the candidacy of Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala for the prime ministerial post. The party´s top brass believe that CC members can be convinced once they are briefed about the developments in the last couple of days. “We at the standing committee meeting today decided to float this proposal at the central committee to describe members the situation in detail,” the party´s vice-chairperson Bidya Bhandari told Republica. Earlier, Chairman Khanal and another leader Madhav Kumar Nepal were flexible but other key leaders, including KP Sharma Oli and Ishwar Pokharel, were dead against the proposal to nominate the head of judiciary as the executive head. But, the situation has changed a lot over the last couple of days and almost all the standing committee members have expressed readiness to go for the CJ-headed government. “There are no serious differences in the standing committee over the proposal,” said Paudel. “We therefore decided to take the consent of CC members on the issue.” Asked how CC members could be convinced on the proposal they had rejected two days ago, Paudel said the members will be convinced once the leaders brief them about the latest political situation and the urgency of holding election. An overwhelming majority of the CC meeting on Tuesday had suggested to the party leadership to find a prime ministerial candidate from a political party and not to nominate apolitical leadership. A UML leader privy to the development said even the leaders who were clearly against forming a non-partisan government are flexible over the idea of forming a CJ-headed government. Now all eyes are on UML central committee meeting as the Nepali Congress (NC) leaders have announced to keep all options open while the Madhes-based parties have already said that they are ready for any alternative. nnnn