Nepal summons long-awaited first meeting of constitution drafting body

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-1-12 8:58:14

Nepal's government summoned the first meeting of Constituent Assembly (CA) for January 22, government said on Saturday, ending weeks-long uncertainty.

The process of calling the first meeting of CA was delayed as the head of the state and government were at loggerheads about calling the first meeting of the constitution drafting body which is expected to write a new constitution within a year to end the political instability. The CA was elected from Nov. 19's elections.

But on Saturday, President Ram Baran Yadav backtracked from his position and asked Chairman of Interim Election Government Khilraj Regmi to call the first meeting of CA.

As per the constitutional provision, the first CA meeting should be called within 21 days after the Election Commission announces the final result. The Commission finalized the election resultlast week.

"As per the article 69(1) of interim government, Chairman of Interim Election Government has summoned the first meeting of CA for Jan. 22," a statement issued by Nepal government on Saturday evening reads. Earlier, a case was filed in Supreme Court (SC) stating that President should call the first meeting of CA as per international standards.

The first meeting has been called after the two months of Nov. 19 elections. Immediately after the CA election, Nepal faced some political deadlocks. First, the process of preparing the final election result was delayed as UCPN (Maoist) announced not to submit the names of leaders under the proportional representation (PR) category.

The party submitted the names after other parties agreed to form a parliamentary panel to investigate the vote-rigging on Nov. 19 election. The Maoist is saying that it was relegated to third position due to fraud in November 19 elections.

After the parties settled the Maoist demand, government and head of the state engaged on dispute regarding the call of first meeting of CA. After the settlement of dispute, parties will now focus on power sharing issues among the major parties.

Nepali Congress (NC), a centrist party, which has emerged as the largest, is preparing to form a government under its leadership. But, parties have not settled the power sharing deal.


blog comments powered by Disqus