KATHMANDU: The five-party ruling coalition is issuing a joint statement to make its position clear on President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s refusal to authenticate the Citizenship Bill.

President Bhandari refused to certify the Citizenship Bill endorsed and sent by both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly.

“Since the President’s move is a blatant violation of the Constitution and parliamentary dignity, we will issue a joint statement today,” Unified Socialist Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal said.

Top leaders of the ruling parties held a meeting at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar on Wednesday on the issue.

The ruling coalition is enraged after President Bhandari rejected the Citizenship Bill passed by the House of Representatives for the second time and sent to the President for authentication.

The alliance has concluded that President Bhandari has disrespected the dignity of the Constitution and has snubbed the parliamentary system by violating the constitutional obligation to authenticate the Bill.

Nepali Congress (NC) party has said that the President’s move has caused a threat to the system itself.

Similarly, the Maoist Center has also said that the President violated the dignity of the Constitution.

Likewise, the leadersdiscussingdiscussing the tricky issue of allocation of seats in the November 20 elections to the House of Representatives.

The leaders were supposed to thrash out the differences on Tuesday. However, the leaders failed to thrash out the contentious issue of allocation of seats.

The parties, therefore, decided to meet on Wednesday.

“We are close to a decision,” Unified Socialist senior leader Jhalanath Khanal said on Tuesday evening expressing the hope of finalizing the issue “in a day or two”.

Even on Tuesday, top leaders of the five-party ruling coalition met to discuss and decide the number of seats in the November 20 elections to the House of Representatives and State Assembly.

The meeting of the task force and the top leaders held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar on Tuesday could not make any decision as the party leaders remained adamant about their respective positions.