Former prime ministers KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal unveiled on Tuesday the joint manifesto of their parties CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) that have forged an electoral alliance, expressing their firm commitment to political stability as a precursor to economic prosperity.

Blaming chronic instability for the country’s sluggish economic growth, the two parties announced their alliance with the ultimate goal of merger after the polls.

Presenting the highlights of the manifesto, Maoist Centre Chairman Dahal said the alliance would end 70 years of political turmoil in the country.

Possibly due to vehement criticism from the Nepali Congress of the alliance’s “authoritarian motives”, the 48-page manifesto is silent on the key agenda of replacing the system of governance with the directly elected president.

Leaders of the NC, the strongest rival in the upcoming federal and provincial elections, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Ram Chandra Poudel have remarked that the communist alliance wants to impose an autocratic communist regime in the country. The NC stands against a directly elected president.

Chairman Oli, however, said the alliance does not object to the directly-elected president. “We only object to autocratic rule but not a democratic system. The United States has a presidential system and there is democracy,” he said. Oli claimed that the document was not only a manifesto but one of the best commitment papers to developing the country.

At the function, Dahal presented nine major tasks to be completed within two years under a government of the left alliance, six major works to be done in five years; 13 major plans to be completed in five years; and 10 top achievements to be made in a decade.

“The NC has been creating rumours about the left alliance. We counter them,” Dahal said.

The alliance’s common foreign policy would be guided by the charter of the United Nations, Panchasheel and the Non-Aligned Movement. The bloc would reject any foreign interference in the country’s internal matters.

Safeguarding Nepal’s “unique” democratic revolution; commitment to peace, prosperity and equality; free and fair polls; and socio-economic transformation are some of the agendas of the document.