By Rudra Raj Koirala
The differences are apparently visible in seat-sharing deal and the coalition partners are not budging from their viewpoints in Nepal. The task force members say they can’t work out a formula until the top leaders themselves reach settlement on seats adjustment. The sharing of provincial and federal election seats among the five ruling parties is getting harder by the day by day.

On August 5, the task force, which has 11 members, was formed by a meeting of the ruling parties to recommend a seat-sharing formula. The government has previously stated elections will be held on November 20. A meeting of the ruling alliance asked the task force to make a joint idea for seat-sharing and will prepare a framework on how to adjust parties for the seats of both federal and provincial constituencies.

There are 165 seats under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system for federal elections and 330 FPTP seats for provincial elections. After being incapable to chalk out a formula for distribution the seats, a meeting of the task force earlier on Monday had agreed to consult the top leaders of the alliance. According the convener of the task force, a Congress leader said it could take ten days to remove the differences among the parties as each party wants more seats for itself.

The convener of the task force is tasked with coordinating with the top alliance leaders in bid to make flexible each party on seat-sharing. In this regard, he has already met with Congress President and Prime Minister, CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman CPN (Unified Socialist) chair Nepal, Janata Samajbadi Party chair, and Rastriya Janamorcha chief .

On Monday a meeting of the task force chalked out standards for sharing seats among the five partners and started assessing on the basis of their previous performance votes secured by each in the last two elections the 2017 elections and this year’s local elections.

As the FPTP seats won in the 2017 elections, PR seats won in the 2017 elections, performance in last May’s local elections, and priority to top leaders of the parties. It seems, the task force will not make recommendations until it receives a clear direction from the top leaders since fixing the number is a complex work.

The Nepali Congress is claiming around 100 FPTP seats for itself, the CPN (Maoist Center) wants 50, the CPN (Unified Socialist) is looking for 25 seats and the Janata Samajbadi Party is seeing for 16 seats. The alliance plans to divide provincial assembly seats on the same ratio as federal parliament seats. However, Maoist Center and other alliance members are not ready to concede 100 seats to the Nepali Congress.

It is also expected that, if the congress bargained on fewer than 100 seats, then there will be a rebellion inside the Congress party as disappointed candidates could challenge the alliance. There must be understanding between the alliance members regarding this problem of the Nepali Congress.

The general secretary of the Nepali Congress also agrees that the task force is unlikely to complete its task until the top leaders themselves reach a concrete agreement on seat-sharing. After knowing the differences concerning the seats to share among the alliance partners, the Nepali Congress has dropped the idea of inducting Loktantrik Samajbadi Party into the alliance.

So the possibility of the Loktantrik Samajbadi joining the alliance has ended. And if the Congress doesn’t get enough seats, then the UML will take advantage of its weaknesses. The Maoist Centre has been insisting on sharing seats based on the results of the 2017 elections. Out of the 165 FPTP seats, the Maoist Center had won 36; Nepali Congress 23; and the current Janata Samajbadi Party that contested the 2017 elections under the banner of the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum had won 10 FPTP seats.

At the task force meeting, members from the Maoist Center and the Unified Socialist had proposed sharing only the 81 FPTP seats won by the UML in 2017 while leaving the seats won by member parties for themselves. Nonetheless the task force was incapable to come to a decision due to tenacious differences between its members. If all the parties stick to their guns, then there will not be any agreement.

Meanwhile, a new seat-sharing formula was making rounds among top leaders. According to a Maoist Centre leader formula, the Congress would get 85 seats and the remaining 80 would be distributed among the remaining four members plus Samajbadi and Ekata Rastriya Abhiyan parties freshly announced to fight the elections under the Maoist Centre’s election symbol and manifesto.

Currently, the senior Maoist Centre leader said it will take around ten days to settle the seat-sharing tussle. However, no party appears ready to cooperate and the problem more days more than expected.