The visiting members made the query during their separate meetings with top leaders, including CA Chairman Subas Nembang and UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, among other top officials.
This has come at a time when leaders from major political parties have resumed negotiations with the hope of settling contentious issues in constitution writing.Interlocutors from various political parties are upbeat as opposition parties have withdrawn their planned general strike in response to the ruling side's decision to defer CA meeting for a week with a view to giving more time for consensus as demanded by the opposition leaders.
"I was simply taken aback when one of the delegation members asked me if there was any possibility of holding the third CA election and possible public reaction to such a proposal," Nembang told reporters after the visiting members met him at his chamber in Singha Durbar on Thursday. "I told them that third CA election is simply impossible. This is beyond the imagination of Nepali society."
Nembang also described the query as irrelevant as Nepal has already spent seven years since the first CA election in 2008 on drafting a new constitution.
He said there is no point in thinking about the third CA election as the political leadership during the second CA election vowed to produce a new statute within a year. He said that since most of the issues in statute drafting have already been settled, a new constitution can be delivered within weeks or a few months after the political parties settle key contentious issues. "The second CA will produce a new constitution. So, it is pointless to even think about the possibility of a third CA."
The visiting group comprises Chairperson of EP delegation Jean Lambert (UK), Cristian Dan Preda (Romania), Afzal Khan (UK) and Thomas Mann (Germany).The delegation members are also scheduled to call on President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, and Chairman of CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli, among other top officials.
According to leaders, the visiting delegation during their separate meetings with leaders lobbied for a consensus-based constitution even if it takes longer to draft such a constitution. Some politicians construed ulterior motive behind the enquiry.
A leader said the EU delegation might have taken the composition of the current CA as unfavorable for pushing ahead their agendas. "Such a query might have come out of an assumption that the result of third CA election might be favorable for them," said a leader requesting anonymity.
Member of parliamentary committee on international relations Rajan Bhattarai described it as "an undiplomatic question". He described it as surprising and undiplomatic because it has come at a time when even dissident parties haven't spoken about the remaining three-year tenure of the CA. "This indicates that they have concluded that the present CA isn't going to deliver a new constitution," he said.
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