Constitutional Reform – 2008
2008
The Constituent Assembly elections took place on 10 April 2008 and the Maoist party established itself as the largest party by winning 220 seats. A delay in the formation of a consensus government prompted that the Fifth Amendment be added to the interim constitution. The Fifth Amendment was adopted on 13 July 2008 and provided the basis for the formation of a majoritarian government.1
The CA started to work on the draft constitution, which was scheduled to be promulgated before the tenure of the CA expired on 28 May 2010. On 14 November 2008, the CA approved a set of regulations and procedures for drafting the country’s constitution. The assembly endorsed an 82-week calendar for completing the drafting process and established 14 committees to carry out the drafting of the constitution. The core of these committees was the Constitutional Committee, a 61-member committee that was created to work on the concept papers prepared by the 10 thematic Assembly committees.2 However, the constitution making process did not move smoothly because the major political parties were unable to reach a consensus.