The 8th session of the National Consensus Dialogue on political theme on Sunday witnessed an in-depth discussion of a new document presented by the ‘six political societies’. It contains a number of topics proposed to be included in the Dialogue agenda.
After deliberations and exchange of views, it was decided to discuss a document presented by the six political societies on 28 January. Some of the participants suggested re-discussion of the second point in the document, which says “the leadership is part of the Dialogue”. Consensus had been reached on this in the second session held on 13 February. Others proposed deferring discussion on the point to another session so as to discuss other points, as a mutual agreement had not been reached on this particular point, in accordance with the mechanisms to run the sessions that were agreed upon by all the participants.
The eighth session started with a long discussion about the new document of the five political societies, and there were different views about reviewing it before deliberating on the previously-submitted documents.
Some participants demanded to go back to discuss the original document presented by the six political societies to avoid wasting time of the session, in view of the fact that consensus had been previously reached on some matters in the new document, including “mechanisms for running the sessions”. Therefore there was no need to re-discuss them.
Others felt that the new document did not cancel the previous document, as the latest document included new points, since it was redrafted by including the new points. The deliberations led to a continuation of discussion on the document of the six political societies tabled on 28 January and the discussion of the new document was cancelled.
Some participants suggested re-discussion of the second point in the document on “the leadership is part of the Dialogue” on which consensus had been reached in the second session held on 13 February. Others said that discussing the same point in each session could hinder the progress of the Dialogue. It was decided to postpone discussion on the point because mutual agreement had not been reached to push the Dialogue further by discussing new points. This decision was taken in accordance with the consensus among the participants on the mechanisms for running the session in such a situation as it had been agreed before that “a point that doesn’t reach consensus will be postponed to another session”.
After that the session was adjourned for deliberations with the agreement of all the participants to discuss how this point will be postponed to another session. But the session concluded without reaching an agreement, though the six societies insisted on discussing it. The participants agreed to hold the next session on Wednesday 20 March.
Notably, the participants had reached consensus in the seventh session held on 13 March on the following points, to be included in the draft agenda namely mechanisms for running the sessions the participants reached consensus on the mechanisms for running the sessions, in accordance with the minutes of the fifth session held on 27 February; mechanisms to implement the outcomes on which consensus had been reached through; formation of an implementation team from among the participants in the Dialogue; public referendum; implementation guarantees; setting a timeframe for the implementation; constitutional means; constitutional institutions and the timeframe. The timeframe will be decided upon after the final approval of the agenda.