Nepal’s young lawmakers are unhappy. They want more say in constitution drafting and also their seniors to complete the task at hand before May 28 — the deadline to adopt a new constitution.
Cutting across party and ideological barriers, many of the new generation Constituent Assembly
members have formed an informal group to pressurise senior leaders of all parties to draft the constitution soon. “We feel excluded from the key processes of constitution drafting. The new group would try and ensure a bigger role and pressurize seniors to work fast,” said Sunil Babu Pant (37) from Communist Party of Nepal (United).
Following failure of the Constitutional Committee to submit first draft of the constitution on March 5, there’s growing uncertainty on whether Nepal would be able to meet the deadline.
This had led to a feeling of restlessness among the new generation lawmakers who have started a signature campaign of all CA members below 50 years of age seeking completion of the constitution drafting process on schedule.
One third of the total 601 CA members are below 40 and over 430 of them (nearly two-third of the total members) have not crossed the age of 50.