Nepal parties reject joint proposal on drafting constitution

Nepal's parties in parliament have rejected a joint proposal tabled by the ruling Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), which they believe could further affect a fragile constitution-drafting process, party leaders said Wednesday.

After a meeting of 20 parties led by the main opposition United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M), they said the proposal of the ruling parties was aimed at destabilising the constitution-drafting process and pushing the country toward further uncertainty, according to Xinhua.

Two weeks ago, the ruling parties came up with a joint proposal on key issues, such as federalism and formation of government, which is making the statute-drafting more complicated and dividing the parties.

After the opposition rejected the proposal, there was growing tussles among the parties before the Jan 22 deadline of promulgation of a new constitution as committed during last year's election campaign.

"We urge all concerned to be serious on constitution-drafting process as per past agreements," the parties said in a joint statement. "The federalism with identity and proportional and inclusive constitution is our bottom-line."

The constitution drafting has been stalled indefinitely in Nepal. But the ruling parties are committed to forwarding their proposal in parliament or the Constituent Assembly.