First meeting of Nepal Constituent Assembly lasts 17 minutes

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The first meeting here of Nepal's newly-elected Constituent Assembly -- mandated to draft the country's new constitution -- lasted a brief 17 minutes with the house adjourning to meet again Jan 29.

The 601-member house, elected in the Nov 19 polls, has before it the onerous task of drafting a new constitution for Nepal -- a job which the previous assembly, elected in 2008, failed to complete.

Leaders of top political parties in the Himalayan nation have vowed to deliver the document within an year -- and protem Chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa reminded the members of the commitment.

"People will not forgive us if we repeat the same mistakes as in the past. So, it is our duty to carve a new statute by the given timeline," Thapa said.

Eighty-five-year-old Thapa, who has been prime minister five times in the past, shall as the oldest member preside over the proceedings in the house till the chairman and vice-chairman have been elected.

At the outset, Thapa read out a message from Interim Election Council chairman Khil Raj Regmi, who is also the executive head of the country till a prime minister is elected and a new government formed.

The meeting thanked all Nepali people for making the constituent assembly elections a success. Around 80 percent of the total electorate of 1.22 million exercise their franchise in the Nov 19 elections last year, which the Election Commission of Nepal termed as historic.

Ahead of the meeting, an alliance of 33 political parties led by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) took out a protest rally near the International Convention Centre here, housing the assembly. The alliance had boycotted the Nov 19 elections.

The alliance has demanded dissolution of the "anti-nationalist and anti-people" Constituent Assembly which it said was formed under various national and international conspiracies.

Security remained tight around the assembly hall to avoid any untoward situation.

Thirty political parties are being represented in the Constituent Assembly. The strength of the Constituent Assembly is 601 of which 575 members have already been elected and nominated under first-past-the-post and proportional representation electoral systems. The remaining 26 members will be nominated by the cabinet.

The four-year house, which is yet to chart out its business, has to draft a new statute besides working as a regular legislative parliament.

The first Constituent Assembly was elected in 2008 and dissolved in 2012 without a constitution being drafted as mandated to it.