Nepal parties fail to prepare first draft of new constitution

Nepal's political parties today again missed the mid-October deadline set to prepare the first draft of the country's constitution as they failed to "bridge the gap" on contentious issues.
The Parliamentary Committee had directed the Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC) on October 11 to settle all disputes and submit a report by today.
It was asked to prepare questionnaires in objective format of the unsettled matters, and send it to the full House including its report.
However, the committee headed by senior Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai said repeated attempts have failed to bridge the gap on contentious issues of the new constitution.

The parties are preparing to buy more time to forge consensus amending the constitution drafting calendar, according to sources at Constituent Assembly (CA).
The first deadline given for the CPDCC to settle the disputes expired in mid-September.

Forms of governance, delineating federal provinces and judicial system are the main issues which need to be settled among the political parties before finalising the draft constitution.
The political parties have now agreed to prepare the first draft of the constitution by January 22, 2015.
The previous CA was dissolved as it couldn't settle the disputes on the three key issues.