Nembang elected unopposed as CA Chair

UML candidate Subash Chandra Nembang has been elected unopposed as the chairman of the Constituent Assembly (CA).

Nembang was the sole candidate in the election in the CA on Tuesday.

Earlier, the Maoist party had stated that it would field party leader Krsihan Bahadur Mahara for the post.

But, the party backtracked after the Congress and UML, the first and second largest parties respectively, reached a power-sharing deal and decided to elect UML candidate as CA chair.

After his election, Nembang told media-persons that the political parties should learn from the past mistakes and complete the task of constitution drafting within a year. 

Parties negate politics of negation

KATHMANDU, FEB 19 - Opposition parties have warned Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML against monopolising power and negating them in the constitution-writing process.

The parties reminded the NC and UML, the two largest parties in the Constituent Assembly (CA), that there can be no alternative to cooperation among the parties to secure a timely constitution. Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, UCPN (Maoist) Parliamentary Party (PP) leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal lamented the fact that the NC and UML made the seven-point agreement among themselves and bypassed the UCPN (Maoist).

“We are being sidelined based on our numbers,” said a visibly agitated Dahal. He went on to add that his party expected that any large agreements would take place among the “fellow travelers” of the 12-point agreement signed in 2005 between the then seven-party alliance.  

Echoing Dahal, Kamal Thapa, PP leader of Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, also warned against the politics of negation . Thapa accused the NC, UML and Maoist parties of imposing a “syndicate” system, alluding to the past trend of setting agendas via a four-party mechanism and bypassing the CA.

Explaining his party's reason for not fielding candidates for the post of CA chairman, Dahal said that his party made the decision as a mark of goodwill, warning that the gesture should not be taken for granted. “Our goodwill should not be read as our weakness,” remarked Dahal. The party was slated to vie for the post with Krishna Bahadur Mahara widely seen as the party's candidate. The party decided against it after holding consultations with fringe parties.