E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, OCT 15 - The commitment by political parties to unveil the first draft of the new constitution by November 30 is likely to be another nail the the Constituent Assembly's coffin.

Timely promulgation of the first statute draft within the self-declared deadline looks like an unattainable goal as the major parties haven't made any tangible progress in constitution drafting even one and half months after the CA's fourth extension in August 29. Both the Constitutional Committee (CC) and Dispute Resolution Subcommittee, responsible for resolving 47 contentious issues of statute drafting, are not active since last month.

The deadlock over the new statute is the result of lack of progress in the peace process, for which the Special Committee led by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai is responsible. The main opposition Nepali Congress is maintaining that the statute making process can't proceed ahead unless the peace process reaches 'an irreversible stage' and has blocked discussions in the dispute resolution subcommittee headed by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal since September 9.

"We still have sufficient time to meet the deadline, but if we fail to activate the Dispute Resolution Subcommittee and resolve the contentious issues it will not be possible to bring the first consitution draft," said Tek Prasad Dhungana, CA's chief legal advisor.

The Dahal-led subcommittee is yet to find a meeting point on forms of governance, electoral system and federal structures to be enshrined in the new constitution. During discussions held in early September, parties were closer to consensus on mixed model under which a directly elected president and a prime minister elected from the parliament would share executive power being accountable to the parliament.

The major parties had also narrowed down differences on intricate issues and have agreed to accept a mixed electoral system and form a panel of experts instead of the proposed state restructuring commission to review the proposal for setting up 14 provinces made by the CA Committee on State Restructuring and Devolution of State Power.

NC and UML want actions from the Maoist party to take the peace process forward before formalising informal understandings. CA Chairman Subas Nembang held a meeting with top leaders of all the major parties last week and urged them to immediately resolve the outstanding issues of peace process and give a lifeline to constitution drafting.

"The parties had told me that they would speed up work from Sunday," said Nembang, who last week urged the fringe parties represented in the CA to pile pressure on the top leaders for the sake of the peace process. After CA's term extension, CC held only a single meeting and the Dahal-led committee sat for two times. 

According to officials at the Parliament Secretariat, around three weeks of time is needed to prepare the first statute draft even if the fundamental differences are resolved by Dispute Resolution Subcommittee. The proposals endorsed by the subcommittee will be discussed in CC before finalising the constitution draft.

CC, in accordance with the parliamentary rules of procedure, will table the first draft in the CA after political consensus. The draft can be prepared through a majority vote, but each clause of the final constitution needs to secure a two-third majority of the CA during the time of promulgation.

Posted on: 2011-10-16 04:18

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