KATHMANDU, Jan 8 - In yet another momentous decision, the top leaders of the ruling seven-party alliance and the CPN-Maoist on Monday agreed to promulgate the interim statute and form the interim legislature on January 15, formally opening doors for the Maoists to join the political mainstream.

The decision was reached during a meeting of the top leaders of the eight parties at the Prime Minister's Residence at Baluwatar this morning.

With the parties' agreement to promulgate the interim constitution, which was finalized by the eight parties in December last year, the Maoists, who waged decade-long insurgency, will participate in the interim legislature, which will be mandated to hold the constituent assembly elections to draft a new constitution for the nation.

However, there is no clear mention in today's agreement made public through a press statement signed by all the eight parties' top leaders whether or not the interim legislature will have its first sitting on the same day.

The Maoists say the present House of Representatives will be dissolved immediately after promulgating the interim constitution which will replace the current 1990 Constitution and form the interim parliament "within a couple of hours" on the same day.

"There will be only a couple of hours' difference between the (dissolution of ) old parliament and the (formation of ) new parliament on January 15," Maoist spokesperson and chief negotiator of the party, Krishna Bahadur Mahara told ekantipur.

The names of the parliamentarians for the 330-member interim legislature will also be made public on the same day.

The eight parties will finalize the names of the interim parliamentarians by January 14.

The SPA and Maoist leaders have also decided to complete the task of reinstating the police posts displaced during the decade-long conflict by January 14.

Today's meeting also decided to begin the process of issuing citizenship certificates and updating voters’ list for the constituent assembly elections and ask all VDC secretaries to rejoin their offices by January 14.

The top leaders of the eight parties also decided that the Cabinet and the House of Representatives would amend "minor" textual errors, if any, in the finalised text of the interim constitution before its is promulgated. 

A full court meeting of the Supreme Court justices on Sunday had forwarded a 13-point suggestion for "necessary" amendments in the interim constitution, "to protect judicial independence."

Structure of interim parliament

The interim legislature will be a single house parliament and all the 209 members of the current Lower House (194) and Upper House (15), except those who opposed the April movement, will be its members.

Among the seven parties, the Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML, NC-D, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, People's Front Nepal, Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandidevi) and the Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party will have 74, 73, 42, 10, 6, 3 and 1 seats respectively in the 330-member interim legislature.

Similarly, the Maoists will have 73 members while 48 members will be chosen from different professional organisations, independent political figures and from the underdeveloped community and regions.

King's supporters excluded

The political parties, which were against the April Uprising, will not be allowed to participate in the interim legislature.

The eight members of the existing HoR who supported King's rule and would not be included in the to-be-formed interim parliament are: Nepali Congress leaders Narayan Singh Pun and Prakash Koirala (Pun was a royal minister after Oct.4, 2002 takeover, Koirala minister of the royal cabinet formed after Feb.1, 2005), UML leaders Prem Bahadur Singh and Nar Bahadur Budhathoki (both supported King's rule and were expelled by the party), RPP's Buddhi Man Tamang and Brijesh Kumar Gupta (both ministers of the royal cabinet) and Sadbhawana Party's Badri Prasad Mandal and Mrigendra Kumar Singh Yadav. Mandal was the royal minister and Yadav was the regional administrator appointed by the king.

The interim parliament will have only 15 members from the present National Assembly. Three members of the upper house --- Rup Jyoti, Yankila Sherpa and Dev Narayan Chaudhary --- will not be included in the interim legislature for their support to the king's rule and opposition of the April movement.