Nepal to elect chairman of constitution drafting body

Nepal's constituent assembly, the body elected last year with the purpose to draft a new constitution for the country, will elect its chairman Tuesday.

The meeting of the constituent assembly Sunday, which was chaired by senior lawmaker Surya Bahadur Thapa, announced the date for electing the chairman. The election is regarded as an important post in the constitution drafting process, reported Xinhua.

Thapa has been chairing the constituent assembly since its first meeting Jan 22, reported Xinhua.

The Nepali Congress has agreed to support candidate of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) in the house as a part of a power sharing between the country's two largest parties.

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has demanded the post of the constituent assembly chairman.

"First and second largest parties have formed the government, we are outside the government, so we should get constituent assembly chairman," Maoist spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma told media persons after the meeting.

It has been almost a month since the first meeting of constituent assembly but there has not been any progress on constitution drafting process.

Parties have made a public commitment to promulgate a new constitution within a year, but they are yet to start the constitution drafting process.