In Nepal, the discourse of Constituent Assembly (CA) had been going on since 1950, this finally ended on 28th May, 2008 when the first meeting of CA was held. The historical CA election was held on 10th April 2008. The day of the first meeting of CA was a milestone in the Nepalese history as it declared Nepal as a democratic republic and ended centuries of monarchy rule. There have already been 29 meetings of CA held until 27th May 2009. People are curious about the purpose and outcomes of these meetings. People are watching the process of the constitution making.

The first meeting of CA was held in International Conference Center Kathmandu on 28th May, 2008. It started late at 9.20 p.m. due to various procedural dilemmas. Mr. Kul Bahadur Grurung, senior member of CA, chaired the meeting. The meeting started by him reading a letter sent by the then head of state Mr. Girija Prasad Koirala regarding the calling of CA meeting. Thereafter, the CA gave condolence to known and unknown martyrs who sacrificed their life for the rights of the Nepali people.

Mr. Kul Bahadur Gurung welcomed all the members' present in this meeting and wished that the CA would be able to complete the role of making the constitution of Nepal that has been assigned by the people. In the same meeting the then head of state Mr. Girija Prasad Kiorala also gave a speech. Mr. Kul Bahadur Gurung also read Goodwill letter sent by Somnath Chatargi, speaker of the Loksava of India, congratulating on the successful completion of historical CA election and showering good wishes and hope that the CA would be able to complete the task assigned to the CA by the Nepali people. The work schedule of CA had not made yet until the first day. The same meeting passed the interim work schedule. After fixing the work schedule, Home Minister, Mr. Krishna Prasad Sitaula on behalf of the then head of state Mr. Girija Prasad Koirala presented the proposal on execution of republic. CA members discussed their views on this issue and since this proposal could not get a unanimous consensus by all members, the decision was made based on the numbers of yes and no. Out of the 564 members present at the first meeting, 560 members gave their consent in favor of the proposal and remaining 4 were against the proposal.

After the declaration of the execution of republic, the head of the CA Mr. Kul Bahadur Gurung put forward the proposal to the CA regarding the directive to be given to the former king and his personal secretariat to leave Narayanhiti Palace within 15 days. This proposal was passed by consensus and the first meeting ended.

Similarly the second meeting of the CA was held on 5th June 2008. This meeting formed the committee for drafting the CA (procedure) regulation and this meeting ended the decision of the date of the third CA meeting which was to be held on 11th June 2008.

During the gap between second and third meeting, relationships between the various political parties seemed uneasy on several issues. Certain political parties started putting their own stand on some issues and started to even boycott the CA meeting. In the third meeting of CA, many members aired their views immediately after starting the meeting. The Rastriya Prajatantra Parti (RPP) left the CA after deciding to boycott the activities of CA with the demand of minimizing the price hiking. Despite the boycott of RPP, Constituent Assembly sustained and many members put their view and asked the Prime Minister to open the door for the formation of the new government. In the same meeting, Head of the CA, Mr. Kul Bahadur Gurung read the resignation letters of the CA members who had been elected from two constituencies in First Past the Post System resigned from one constituency. The CA members and the constituency from which they resigned were as follow: Mr.Sher Bahadur Deuwa from Kanchanpur constituency no. 4, Mr. Dev Prasad Gurung from Kaski constituency no. 1, Mr. Puspa Kamal Dahal from Rolpa constituency no. 2, Mr. Upendra Yadav from Morang constituency no. 5 and Mr. Bijaya Kumar Gachhedar from Morang constituency no. 7. The same meeting nominated 44 more members for parliamentary work management advisory committee which has the representatives of all the political parties in the CA. It was also decided that the fourth meeting would be held on 18th June 2008.

The forth meeting of CA which was held on 18th June 2008 started with CA members putting forward their opinions regarding the various political issues. This meeting nominated 6 CA members, out of the 11 members, to chair the meeting in the absence of chairperson and remaining 5 were already nominated as the interim procedure of CA prescribes the 11 members committee for this provision. This meeting ended without a fixed date for the next meeting.

The fifth meeting of the CA was held on 15th July 2008. This meeting unanimously passed the procedure about the election of the President and the Vice-President which was prepared through various discussions within the parliamentary work management advisory committee.

Similarly the sixth meeting of CA was held on 19th July 2008. This meeting was very important as this meeting was going to put another milestone in the history of Nepal by choosing the first President of the Republic of Nepal. Political parties did not have any sort of agreement. Therefore, the main political parties like the Nepal Communist Party- Maoist, Nepali Congress and Nepal Communist Party- UML had their own presidential candidate. But at the last moment Nepal Communist Party-UML made its candidate passive from the voting procedure. This day was also scheduled to elect Vice- President.

As there was no consensus among the parties, CA had to go for an election. There were three presidential candidates from three political parties each Ram Prit Paswan from Nepal Communist Party- UML, Ram Raja Prasad Singh supported by Nepal Communist Party- Maoist, and Dr. Ram Baran Uadav of Nepal Congress. Nepal Communist Party- UML decided to support the presidential candidate of Nepali Congress after they (both parties) reached a consensus. After the agreement between UML and NC, there were only two candidates left Dr. Yadav and Mr. Singh for the presidential race. None of the candidate secured a majority as there were altogether 594 CA members present and one had to secure at least 298 vote to be elected. On this day, only 578 CA members participated in the voting and out of 578 votes casted, 25 votes were invalid. Out of 553 votes that were casted Dr. Ram Baran Yadav had secured 283 votes where as 270 votes were secured by Mr. Ram Raja Prasad Singh.

In the case of the Vice-president Election, Mr. Paramanda Jha from Madhesi People Rights Forum won the vice- president election with 305 votes where as other competitors, Shanta Shrestha from Nepal Communist Party-Maoist, Asta Laxmi Shakya from Nepal Communist Party-UMl, and Man Bahadur Vishowkarma from Nepali Congress secured 283, 4 and 2 votes respectively. As the CA was unable to elect the president in this meeting, Head of CA informed everyone that the presidential election was scheduled to be held on 21st July 2008. He also informed that there would be only two candidates.

The seventh meeting was held on 21st July 2008. This meeting was held to elect the first president of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. Dr. Ram Baran Yadav from Nepali Congress won the election with 308 votes where as the other candidate Mr. Ram Raja Prasad Singh supported by Nepal Communist Party-Maoist secured 282 votes. This meeting also decided to schedule the CA Chairperson Election on the 24th July 2008.

The eighth meeting of the CA was held on 23rd July 2008. In this meeting, Head of CA announced that one seat of CA from Dhanusha constituency no. 5 was vacant as the president Dr. Yadav was elected from this constituency. The same meeting passed the interim procedure of CA meeting 2065. The next meeeting was scheduled for 24th July 2008.

The ninth meeting of CA was held on 24th July 2008. As this meeting was scheduled to elect the Chairperson, Mr. Subash Chandra Nemwang was elected unanimously as the chairperson of CA. This meeting also unanimously passed the interim (second) procedure of CA meeting 2065 .This meeting ended by scheduling the next meeting to be held on 27th July 2008.

On 27th July 2008, the tenth meeting of CA was held. This meeting nominated six CA members in CA (procedure) regulation drafting committee. This meeting ended with the announcement that there was an indefinite postponing of CA.

After the tenth meeting, CA meeting could not held for a long time. The next CA meeting was finally held on 10th November 2008 after 105 days. Mr. Narayan Man Bijukchhe, coordinator of CA (procedure) regulation drafting committee, tabled the draft reports of CA regulation- 2065 and CA (Legislative- parliament work procedure) regulation 2065 in this meeting.

The 12th meeting of CA was held on 11th November 2008. In this meeting, the chairperson of CA Mr. Subash Chandra Nemwang informed CA about the resignation of Mr. Mohan Baidhya 'Kiran' from Nepal Communist Party-Maoist who was elected through proportional representative system in the CA. This meeting unanimously passed the CA regulation- 2065 and CA (Legislative- parliament work procedure) regulation 2065 when the Coordinator of CA (procedure) regulation drafting committee Mr. Narayan Man Bijukchhe tabled these drafts to the CA.

On 14th November 2008 the 13th meeting of CA was held. This meeting unanimously accepted number wise discussion over the draft reports on CA regulation- 2065 and CA (Legislative- parliament work SANCHLAN) regulation 2065. This meeting ended for indefinite time.

The 14th meeting of CA was held on 16th November 2008. The proposed schedule of CA was unanimously approved by parliamentary work management advisory committee. This meeting also decided the date of election for vice-chairperson of CA to be on the 28th November 2008.

On 28th November 2008 the 15th meeting of CA was held. In this meeting Ms. Purna Kumari Subedi of Nepal Communist Party- Maoist was elected as the vice- chairperson of CA by securing majority votes of CA among the six candidates.

The 16th meeting of CA was held on 2nd December 2008. In this meeting, Chairperson of CA read the decision of Election Commission regarding Mr. Kuber Bahadur Oli of Nepal Communist Party- Maoist. He was elected as the CA member in place of Mohan Baidhya 'Kiran' from the same party.

On 15th December 2008, the 17th meeting of CA was held. This meeting fixed the name of CA members for CA constitutional, subjective and procedural committee.

On 29th December 2008 both the 18th and 19th meeting of CA were held. In 18th meeting, CA unanimously approved the proposal about changing the schedule of CA. The second meeting on the same day, officially 19th meeting also unanimously approved the report on CA regulation amendment draft report presented by CA regulation amendment drafting committee.

The 20th meeting of CA was held on 6th January 2009. This meeting unanimously approved the proposal on changing the CA work schedule 2065 with the advice of parliamentary work management advisory committee.

The meeting of parliamentary work management advisory committee held on 6th January changed the date of election of president of different subjective committees from 9th January to 13th January as this election was scheduled to be held on 9th January.

Similarly the 21st, 22nd and 23rd meetings of CA were held on 10th January 2009. This is the first day in the history of CA of Nepal in which three meetings were held on the same day. In the first meeting (21st meeting), Chairperson of CA read the resignation letter of CA member Mr. Sushil Chandra Amatya who was elected from Nepal Communist Party-UML. The second meeting that is the 22nd meeting of CA was held at 10 p.m. In this meeting, the Chairperson informed CA about the approval of the cabinet to nominate Mr. Madhav Kumar Nepal in the place of Mr. Sushil Chandra Amatya as a CA member. Immediately after this another meeting, i.e. 23rd meeting, of CA was held at 10.20 p.m. This meeting approved the proposal to add Mr. Madhav Kumar Nepal, Mr. Baban Singh, and Mr. Sadrul Miya Huk in CA constitutional Committee. This meeting also changed the name of members of some other committees too.

On 13th January 2009, the 24th meeting of CA was held. In this meeting, the Chairperson of CA read the letter of Cabinet regarding the nomination of Mr. Achyut Raj Pandy in the place of Mr. Bishow Nath Upadhyaya who was elected from Nepali Congress.

The 25th meeting of CA was held on 19th January, 2009. In this meeting, some members were added and nominated as members in different subjective committees of CA.

The 26th meeting of CA was held on 13 April, 2009. Some names were changed and some names were included in subjective committees. It was also made known that the CA member of Nepali Congress, Mr. Bodh Narayan Sardhar from Sunsari district had passed away due to a Motor cycle accident. Thus one seat of CA remained vacant.

The 27th meeting of CA was held on 29th April, 2009. In this meeting, several names were changed and included as the members of the subjective committees.

The 28th meeting of the Constituent Assembly was held on 24th May, 2009 after more than a month. From this meeting onwards, the Constituent Assembly (CA) entered into the constitution drafting process. The CA's National Interest Preservation Committee (NIPC) among its eleven committees presented its concept paper in the constitution.

The Chairperson of the National Interest Preservation Committee of the Constitution Assembly, Amik Serchan, tabled the committee's preliminary draft at the CA meeting amid controversy inside the committee. One member out of the eight in the committee expressed objections over the report.

The 29th meeting of CA was held on 27th May, 2009
at the BICC hall. In this meeting, a team of 15-member concept papers discussion committee was formed. A motion to this effect was proposed by chief whip of UNCP-Maoist Mr. Post Bahadur Bogati and Chief whip of Nepali Congress Mr. Laxman Prasad Ghimire, Chief whip of NCP-UML Bhip Prashad Acharya and Chief whip of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Mr. Ram Janam Choudhary seconded the motion.

The main role of this committee is to prepare concept papers on different issues related to the drafting of the new constitution. The team is supposed to present its concise version of all the concept papers presented by all the committees.

The members of the committees are as follow;

• Hon. Agni Prashad Kharel
• Hon. Atmaram Prashad Saha
• Hon. Eakraj Bhandari
• Hon. Narayan Khadka
• Hon. Prakash Chandra Lohani
• Hon. Prativa Rana
• Hon. Prem Bahadur Singh
• Hon. Yuvaraj karki
• Hon. Radhe Shyam Adhakari
• Hon. Laxmanlal karna
• Hon. Barsa Man Pun
• Hon. Bishwo Bhakta Dulal
• Hon. Brijesh Kumar Gupta
• Hon. Sarita Giri
• Hon. Sunil Prajapati

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