Chairman of the Constituent Assembly (CA) Subas Nembang on Thursday asked the parties to either reach consensus on disputed issues themselves or give him the right to write the new Constitution in an amended schedule.
The CA chair, under pressure for remaining passive just like during the last few days of the last assembly, asked the parties to decide on the alternatives during a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee of the CA.
“Either forge consensus in four days or authorise me to draft the Constitution,” Mr. Nembang told top leaders of the political parties during the meeting which was also attended by Prime Minister Sushil Koirala. The CA chair later told reporters that it was still possible to meet the deadline of January 22 to draft the new statute by amending some CA rules.
PM and NC President Koirala and CPN-UML Chairman K P Oli endorsed the assembly chief’s proposal. However, Chairman of the UCPN (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal a.k.a. Prachanda and chief of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Democratic) Bijay Gachchhadar rejected it. Mr. Koirala also urged the Maoist chief to agree to the CA chair’s proposal.
The ruling and opposition parties have differences on how to restructure the state, and model of governance and electoral system to adopt. The NC and the UML have suggested taking recourse to voting to decide the disputes as agreed by all the political parties in March last year.
However, the opposition parties which do not have numbers in the assembly to block or reject any provision – the ruling coalition has a required two-thirds majority – are reluctant to the idea. They have been insisting on “consensus only” approach and have announced protest programs against any attempt to decided the Constitution by voting.
Mr. Oli accuses Mr. Dahal of blocking consensus
Meanwhile, UML chief Oli accused UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Dahal of blocking any attempt to forge consensus and meet the deadline to draft the Constitution by January 22.
The UML leader added that they would meet the deadline on Constitution, “either through consensus or by process (of voting)”.
Mr. Dahal declined to comment on Mr. Oli’s charges against him. The Maoist chairman said that during the meeting, he emphasised the need to have consensus of the parties on the contentious issues of Constitution.
