Lots of conflicting news from Nepal lately. Do people agree on MMP or not? If so, what formula? Is there or is there not a date for the next election?

According to the Himalayan Times, the SPA has agreed to hold elections in April. And they’ve agreed to increase the size of the constituent assembly, sticking with a mixed-member format. But the Maoists still don’t agree.

A tight summary of what the SPA most recently agreed on, from the Hindustan Times:

The parties also arrived at a consensus on the voting system for CA election. As per the agreement, in the 601-member constituent assembly, 335 seats would be filled up in a fully proportional system.

The number of seats elected under first-past-the-post will be 240 while the number of CA members to be nominated by the Prime Minister has been increased to 26 from 17.

The parties have also agreed to amend the interim constitution, incorporating ‘democratic republic’, and would be endorsed by the first sitting of the CA.

But the Himalayan Times in a separate article points out disagreement over the sizes of the tiers, the Maoists seemingly willing to accept MMP if the proportional tier is large.

Although the ruling parties agreed in principle to increase seats on the proportional system, they could not reach understanding on its actual strength. The CPN-UML has proposed 60-40 ratio for the PR and the first-past-the-post. Nepali Congress today came up with a fresh proposal of 55-45 ratio, and the Maoists are insisting on 80-20 ratio if all-out PR was not acceptable to other parties.

More demands are emerging on the Maoist side; they want cabinet portfolios:

On the issue of power-sharing in the government, the Maoist and the UML leaders urged PM Girija Prasad Koirala to share some of the powerful ministries such as Home, Defence and Finance among NC, UML and Maoists. The Maoists are learnt to have said that the NC must give up one of the three ministries if the interim government were to run on coalition culture. Maoists are learnt to have insisted on the finance ministry in the to-be restructured government.

The election date needed to be postponed by constitutional amendment tonight if PM Koirala’s government didn’t want to operate illegally:

The parties are also staring at a possible constitutional crisis if they do not find a compromise by Saturday evening. The interim constitution states that the CA election will be held by December 15. The parties need to amend that provision in the constitution through the parliament, which is sitting in the afternoon at around 4 pm on Saturday.