Kathmandu, Jan 21, 2015: Today´s meeting of the Constituent Assembly (CA) has been again disrupted after the opposition parties including the UCPN (Maoist) obstructed the proposal of the Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML) for the formation of a questionnaire committee to prepare a questionnaire on the disputed issues of the new constitution.
The last three CA meetings were in tense after serious differences were seen among the three major political parties regarding whether to finalize the disputed issues through consensus or to go for the voting process.
The agenda of today´s meeting was presenting proposal regarding the names of members to the proposal formulation committee and its formation as per the Act 91 of CA Regulations-2070.
With the announcement of the initiation of the meeting by CA Chairman Subas Nembang, lawmakers from the opposition parties including the UCPN (Maoist) picketed the rostrum chanting slogans.
Today´s meeting took place for around seven minutes as it was started some 45 minutes lately than the scheduled time. It was scheduled for 11:00 am this morning.
Recalling the commitment made before the people by the political parties to promulgate the new constitution on January 22, tomorrow, the CA Chairman made them aware about the questions to be raised by the people while obstructing the CA meetings.
Nembang said,” January 22 is coming tomorrow. What answer we will give to the people if the situation continues. So I request all political parties to pay attention toward it.”
On the occasion, the lawmakers from the ruling parties clapped and supported to the CA Chairman.
The Federal Democratic Alliance led by the UCPN (Maoist) has been arguing that it would be wiser to move ahead only after agreeing on the disputed issues of a new constitution whereas the parties in the ruling coalition are insisting on adopting the CA procedure for formulating the constitution as much time has been spent in the name of reaching consensus on these issues.
The meetings of the Constituent Assembly are facing disruption of late and the last meeting also saw vandalism due to the simmering political conflict and scheming by the ruling and the opposition parties. The long running disputes among the parties and its manifestation into hooliganism in the CA meeting has tarnished the image of the CA itself which is the sovereign body of the people´s representatives. This has created a sense of repulsion among the people towards the CA and the CA members.
The political parties had promised to the people at the time of the last CA election that they would deliver a new constitution within a year from the date of the first sitting of the CA.
However, the parties are still divided on the major contents of the new constitution a day before the stipulated date of January 22 for issuing the constitution. It is unlikely at this juncture they would be able to sort out the issues and deliver the new constitution by tomorrow.
Especially, the issues of federalism, form of governance, the electoral system and the judicial system are the major bone of contention between the ruling parties and the opposition alliance.
Political parties in the alliance including the UCPN (Maoist) have been advocating for federalism based on ethnic identity while the ruling parties including the Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML) have been stressing on federalism based on multiple-identity.
The next meeting of the CA started at 1.30 pm today.
Source: RSS
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