Draft constitution tabled in CA at last

KATHMANDU, July 1 : The major political forces on Tuesday evening finalized the preliminary draft of the new constitution.

Settling some of the unresolved disputes on various provisions, the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) of the Constituent Assembly (CA) prepared the draft and committee chair Krishna Sitaula tabled it at the CA full House for deliberations.

With this progress, the CA has made the historic document public and the deliberations on it in the CA plenary will begin Thursday.

Major political forces, including Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist), over the last few days, disputed over provisions on issuance of citizenship, local election and the issue of whether or not to include any immutable provisions in the new constitution.

But after hours-long negotiations they found middle way solutions and finalized the wordings.

"Constitution can't incorporate views of each and every political party because constitution is a document of compromise," CA Chairman Subas Nembang said while receiving the draft from CDC Chair Sitaula. "Any important issue, if missing, can be included until the last hours."

He said that the finalization of the draft has laid a strong ground for promulgation of the new constitution.

Stating that accommodating differing views of over two dozen political parties in a single document is challenging, CDC Chairman Sitaula said the CA will now concentrate all its efforts on completing the task through fast track process.

"We still have time make corrections if there is any duplication or if any important issue is missing. We can do it while giving it the final touches," said Sitaula after tabling the draft in the CA plenary.

The task of preparing the integrated draft was expedited mainly after the four major political forces -- the NC, CPN-UML, UCPN (Maoist) and MPRF-Democratic -- settled the key features of new constitution such as the system of governance, number of provinces, judicial and electoral model through the 16-point deal.

But the drafting process was delayed for a few days as major parties disputed over some of the issues.

The UCPN (Maoist) strongly objected to the proposal to hold local elections within six months after commencement of the new constitution. Eventually, other parties agreed not to mention any deadline for holding local elections.

Similarly, the parties have decided not to include any immutable provision in the preamble.

The new constitution has ensured 33 percent representation for women in the central legislature.

The parties have yet to decide whether or not to reappoint judges after commencement of the new constitution and set a threshold for seats under proportional representation (PR) electoral system. The NC and CPN-UML are for making it mandatory for a political party to secure certain percent of total valid votes to get a seat in parliament under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system but UCPN (Maoist) and some fringe parties have strongly opposed it.

UCPN (Maoist) and some other fringe parties have been demanding representation of the leader of main opposition in the judicial council.

The UCPN (Maoist) has been insisting on reappointment of judges and restructuring of the council with representation of main opposition leader. For now, they have kept the draft silent.

Still, various political parties, including the major forces, have registered their differing views in the draft. UCPN (Maoist) agreed to sign the draft only after they were allowed to register their note of dissent on Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, a group of lawmakers staged protest within the CA hall immediately after CDC Chair Sitaula tabled the draft.

Lawmakers from Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal (FSF-N), Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party, Sadbhavana Party, Tarai-Madhes Sadbhavana Party and Bahujan Shakti Party trooped into the well and tore down some copies of the draft. The political parties that have opposed the recent course of constitution writing command 35 seats in the 601-member CA.

"The sovereignty of the CA can't be breached on the pretext of making constitution through fast track procedures. This is unacceptable to us," FSF-N Chairman Upendra Yadav told reporters while emerging from the CA building.

Also, Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) accused the major parties of violating CA procedures. "But we aren't for hindering the constitution making process," said RPP-N Chairman Kamal Thapa.