He said that leaders from the four major political forces -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) -- have already reached agreement that the draft of the new constitution should be prepared within six months of the new CA polls and the new constitution should be written within one year after the election scheduled for November 19. [break]
"We can´t waste months and years in the name of writing a new constitution. If we fail to settle the issues and produce a new constitution in a year, we have to go for a referendum to decide major thorny provisions such as the model of federalism and system of governance," said former prime minister Nepal at a function organized by the party´s newly-formed Pushpa Lal-Madan Bhandari study center on Monday.
Nepal was of the view that the previous CA had done a lot of work in connection with drafting the statute but failed to produce a new constitution because of the inability of the major parties to settle a couple of key political issues. He said that the to-be-elected CA can move ahead, owning the work done by the previous CA.
"The previous CA failed to settle some key issues and couldn´t produce a new constitution but it has done a lot of work. The new CA can own this and correct or review it if needed but we don´t need to write a constitution from scratch," he explained. "In the new CA, we have to settle two key political issues -- the model of federalism and system of governance. Then we have to promulgate a new constitution without wasting much time."
The previous CA, which was originally elected for a two-year tenure in 2008, was dissolved last year without producing a new constitution even though its term was extended by four years.
"If we could draft a constitution that protects the national interest, strengthens democracy, ensures social justice, prepares an environment for economic prosperity and maintains good relations with the international community, that will be a progressive statute," he explained.
Also, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had said in Kavre on Saturday that they wouldn´t waste a long time forging consensus on contentious issues as they had done in the past. Dahal said they would put the disputed provisions to a vote in the to-be-elected CA.
Meantime, Nepali Congress leader Shekhar Koirala expressed similar views with regard to resolving the contentious issues and drafting the new constitution. "We can go for a referendum to decide the contentious issues because we can´t afford to waste any more time," he told Republica on Monday.
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