Nepal Government wants to Increase Constituent Assembly One Year

Time is running out in Nepal to prepare a new constitution for the country by 28 May 2010. In order to extend the time of Constituent Assembly (CA), the government has put a bill in the assembly seeking to increase the time of CA by another one year. Two-third majority is needed to make any kind of amendment. The Himalayan Times and Nepalnews.com have reported this. Nepalese Minister for Law and Justice Prem Bahadur Singh placed the bill.

On April 2008, election for a Constituent Assembly was held in which no political party emerged as clear winner. CA members were elected for two years. They were supposed to prepare a new constitution within the stipulated time. However, this has not happened because of political infighting.

It is not clear now what will happen next. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) or CPN (M) is the largest party in the CA but they are now in the opposition. A group of parties are in power as they formed a coalition government a few months ago.

The Maoists have not clearly announced whether they would vote for the amendment for extending the duration of CA. However, in the last few days, they indicated that they would oppose the bill.