Nepal parties submit names for Constituent Assembly

Nepal moved a step closer to constituting its Constituent Assembly and initiating the process of drafting its constitution as the political parties Monday named their members under the proportional representation system.

Of the 601 members to the Constituent Assembly, 335 were to be named by the parties under the proportional representation, and 240 were elected on the first-past-the-post basis. Besides, the new cabinet will nominate 26 members.

As the parties have named 335 members, the Election Commission said Monday it will announce within a week the final result of the polls held on Nov 19.

Once the result is out, the incumbent government will call the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, which will ease the process of formation of the new government and expedite the constitution drafting process, Xinhua reported.

The Nepali Congress submitted the names of 91 members, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) 82 and the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) 54 members.

The remaining seats are allocated to fringe parties.

Earlier, the task was delayed as the Maoist party, which was relegated to third position in the Nov 19 polls, refused to name its members, stating that its demands should be addressed first.

Parties agreed to extend the deadline of proportional category submission to accommodate the UCPN-M in the constituent assembly.

All the parties submitted their lists after the four-point agreement Dec 24, which addressed the Maoists' demand for formation of a parliamentary panel to investigate the poll rigging.

While selecting their candidates, parties faced internal problems and some like suffered a split.