UCPN MAOIST CENTRAL CO9MMITTEE MEET RESUMES THURSDAY Kathmandu, 21 March: UCPN Maoist cenytal committee meet resumes for the second day Thursday. The party, seeking to sweep second constituent assembly elections with support of 19 other parties, is election strategy, nominations to the central committee after the Hetauda seventh general convention and other isues. Nnnn THREE STAR PLAYS MACHINDRA IN FOOTBALL LEAGUE Kathmandu, 21 March: League leader Three Star Club play Machindra Thursday in the martyrs memorial A division super league/ Eight clubs are participating in the championship at Dashrath Rangashalaa. nnnn. DIFFERENCES IN UCPN MAOIST MOUNT OVER APPOINTMENTS IN CC Kathmandu, 21 March: After postponing its central committee (CC) meeting for the third time following its general convention at Hetauda, the UCPN (Maoist) started on Wednesday to give full shape to its CC, Kiran Pun writes in Repiblica. . The meeting was postponed as the party failed to share power among the three factions led by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairmen Baburam Bhattarai and Narayan Kaji Shrestha. The meeting is also to form an alternative CC to include leaders who are disgruntled after being left out from the 240-member general convention organizing committee. But the alternative CC also will get full shape only in phases in accordance with the reactions of party cadres and leaders, according to Bishwabhakta Dulal, a party CC member. ) Similarly, choosing the secretaries is also seen as a very tough proposition for the Maoist party. Those in the race from the three factions outnumber the posts available. Maoist insiders say that Dahal wants to appoint Mahara as general secretary, promoting Bogati as vice-chairman. If he fails in this, Dahal wants to appoint two general secretaries. But Bhattarai argued that that would go against the general convention. The party statute has mentioned the secretaries number will be accordance of the necessity but only one post general secretary. If matters are resolved by appointing three secretaries, they will be Mahara, Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and Giriraj Mani Pokherel from the Dahal, Bhattarai and Shrestha factions respectively. But some Maoist leaders said the number of secretaries can be increased to four, including Barsh Man Pun. Sources said Janardan Sharma and Haribol Gajurel also in the race for secretaries. It is going to be equally tough to form the standing committee. This time round it is only the party politburo that can be formed, said Dulal. According to Maoist leaders, the main reason is there is tough competition for only six of the 17 seats. Former standing committee members already number 11. According to the party statue, only a 17-member standing committee can be formed for the 151-member CC. In the race for party standing committee are Haribol Gajurel, Agni Sapkota, Janardan Sharma, Nand Kishor Pun, Lokendra Bist, Gopal Kirati and Shakti Basnet from the Dahal faction. Similarly, Debendra Paudel, Hisila Yami and Nabaraj Subedi are from the Bhattarai faction. Bishwabhakta Dulal is from the Shrestha faction. For the party politburo, 34 are in the running, including 17 new faces. The new women´s faces are Kamala Roka Magar, Onsari Gharti Magar, Shashi Shrestha and Anjana Bishankhe. Roka and Gharti are close to Dahal and rest close to Shrestha. Similarly, Prabhu Sah, Ram Kumar Yadav, Ram Kumar Sharma and Sharwan Yadav are in the race for politburo membership from Madhes. Those in the race for the politburo from the Bhattarai faction are Ganga Shrestha, Dor Prasad Upadhyaya, Khagaraj Bhatta, Bamdev Chhetry and Kumar Paudel while those from the Dahal faction are Ganesh Man Pun, Jokh Bahadur Mahara, Dhruba Parajuli and Kumar Adhikari. The general convention decided to form a 151-member central committee, including 98 elected and 53 nominated. According to Maoist insiders, there is no possibility of the first meeting giving full shape to the central committee as differences among factions over power-sharing remain. The posts of secretaries are vacant as former secretary Post Bahadur Bogati has been promoted to general secretary by the general convention. Maoists form candidate selection committee UCPN (Maoist) has formed a nine-member committee under party General Secretary Post Bahadur Bogati to pick candidates for the upcoming election. The party central committee (CC) meeting held at party head office, Perisdanda on Wednesday, also formed another nine-member committee under Vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai to prepare the election manifesto. The committee has been formed balancing out the factions led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairmen Bhattarai and Narayan Kaji Shrestha. In the candidate selection committee, Barsha Man Pun, Shakti Basnet, Haribol Gajurel and Lelamani Pokharel are from the Dahal faction, with Hisila Yami, Devendra Paudel and Prabhu Shah from from the Bhattarai faction and Girirajman Pokharel from the Shrestha faction. The committee for preparing the election manifesto includes Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Lekhraj Bhatta, Gopal Kirati, Sashi Shrestha, Dilliraj Khanal and Dharma Dutta Devkota from the Dahal faction, with Bishwa Bhakta Dulal and Bishwa Nath Shah from the Shrestha faction. Nnnn LOW ENTHUSIASM FOR VOTE SAYS ELECTION OFFICIAL Kathmandu, 21 March: Secretary at the Election Commission (EC) Narayan Gopal Malego said on Tuesday that the constitutional body should get a full shape to make preparations for polls, Republica reports.. “The EC is currently engaged in pre-election preparations,” said Malego while addressing an orientation organized in the capital, adding, “The constitutional body cannot make all the preparations for Constituent Assembly (CA) polls until vacant posts in EC are filled.” EC Spokesperson Anil Kumar Thakur stressed on using biometric voter list to ensure free and fair elections. He said EC has registered 11 million eligible voters with biometrics. “The number is likely to go up by 1.5 million by mid April as the registration process is on,” he added. Asked about options to accommodate missing eligible voters who do not have citizenship certificates, Thakur said the constitutional body can deploy mobile teams along with teams from the home ministry to distribute citizenship certificates. “There is less enthusiasm among the voters even in the rural areas for registration because of lack of awareness, among other reasons,” he said. According to EC, altogether 17.6 million voters were registered during CA polls in 2008. Meanwhile, Malego on Wednesday called on President Ram Baran Yadav and briefed him about the ongoing preparations for fresh polls. “The president enquired about our preparations for the CA polls and I informed him about the ongoing voter registration, education and trainings,” Malego said. nnnn