Lawmakers have now started deliberations in the full House on the draft constitution prepared by the CA's Constitution Drafting Committee and the official document is now open for public feedback as well.
With this progress, the task of constitution making has made a substantive breakthrough because it's the same point where the CA had deadlocked for years. Major political forces such as Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML, UCPN (Maoist) and Madhes-based parties, among others, disputed for years over some of the key features of the constitution.
During these years, the politicians wrangled about the system of governance, federal set up, electoral and judicial models, among others, to be adopted in the constitution. Of these, the federal issue remained the most challenging dispute to settle. Politicians disputed over number of provinces, nomenclature, and bases for delineation of provinces right since the CA-I was elected in 2008. The disputes on number, names and bases of federating the country became the major reason behind the dissolution of the first Assembly in 2012.
On system of governance, Nepali Congress lobbied for parliamentary system with executive prime minister as head of the government and ceremonial president as head of the state as practiced at present in the country. UCPN (Maoist) was for directly-elected executive president while CPN-UML was for directly-elected executive prime minister as head of government and ceremonial president as head of the state.
The disputes resulted in souring relations among the major political forces so much so that they stopped negotiations. Opposition parties led by UCPN (Maoist) resorted to vandalism in the CA meeting, boycotted the CA proceedings, and launched street protests earlier this year. On the other hand, the ruling coalition announced to produce new constitution through two-thirds majority even if the opposition didn't join the process.
The earthquake effect
The cracks of division among major political forces were widening until just before the devastating earthquake rocked the country on April 25. The second-rung leaders from different political parties were putting all their efforts to create a ground for bringing top leaders together in a table for negotiations.
But in the changed context in the aftermath of the disaster, the leaders who were earlier poles apart, vowed to stand together at the time of natural disaster.
With the renewed commitment, the leaders resumed negotiations and inked 16-point deal that settled major issues. They decided to adopt parliamentary model with some minor changes in the model as practiced at present.
On state restructuring, they decided to federate the country into eight provinces and agreed to allow the provincial assemblies to name their respective states. Likewise, they decided to delineate and demarcate the eight provinces based on the recommendations suggested by a high-level expert commission to be formed later.
On electoral model, the draft constitution has adopted a mixed electoral system with 60 percent representatives electing under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) seats and remaining 40 percent under the proportional representation (PR) quota. Thus, the natural disaster became a strong face-saving for both the ruling and opposition sides to come together.
The opposition parties that had squarely failed to attract public support in its agitation were desperately seeking a convincing excuse to return to the CA. Also, leaders from ruling parties that announced to produce constitution through two-thirds votes knew very well about the consequences of bypassing major opposition parties in the course of making new constitution.
In this context, the devastating earthquake proved to be a good excuse for both the sides to bury the hatchet and join hands for resumption of the task. While signing the 16-point political deal, the leaders not only settled the major contentious issues but also declared to produce new constitution through fast-track procedures.
Though the first draft is already prepared, some of the major tasks still remain. Leaders have already started suspending some rules to skip some CA procedures. Lawmakers have now started thorough debates in the CA full House over the draft and the CA secretariat has made the official document open for public feedback. However, the parties are yet to decide whether they would go to local constituencies for collecting people's feedback or seek suggestions through various means of media.
Once the public feedback collected and processed, the drafting committee will revise the first draft and prepare the final one. Then, the revised draft will be tabled in the full House, where lawmakers can register amendments.
After article-wise deliberations over the contents of the drafts and amendment proposals, the constitution will be put for vote. The constitution shall be endorsed by two-thirds votes of the total existing members in the 601-member CA and the president will subsequently make it public amidst a special ceremony.
Any chance of derail?
There are ample grounds to doubt if the remaining course of the constitution making moves ahead smoothly.
Some of the political parties have strongly opposed the 16-point political deal and the fast-track approach in producing new constitution. Some of the Madhes-based political parties have demanded that all the issues related to state restructuring such as delineation and nomenclature of the provinces must be done before finalizing the constitution.
Likewise, there is a strong voice within the CA and from civil society against some of the conditions in issuing citizenship for children through mothers and to those Nepali citizens marrying foreign nationals.
But as things unfold as of now, the alliance leading the constitution making process seems to be in a comfortable position to produce the new constitution.
Though Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, Rastriya Janamorcha and Nepal Workers Peasants Party have strong opposition to some of the provisions adopted in the draft constitution, they have announced to register their views in the constitution but not to obstruct the process.
And, the total strength of the political parties protesting against the process is less than 40 seats in the 601-member House.
If no dramatic developments take place in the days to come, the major political forces don't have that big a challenge ahead in producing new constitution within few months as per their commitment.
twitter: @thiralalbhusal
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Happy Constitution Day!
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