KATHMANDU, July 24

The Unified CPN-Maoist on Friday submitted a 13-page memorandum to Constituent Assembly Chair Subas Chandra Nembang saying that it would be appropriate if the tentative boundaries of the eight provinces were demarcated in the new constitution.

The party, however, said the detailed works of boundary demarcation could be finalised even after the promulgation of the constitution. The UCPN-M also said that it was committed to the main spirit of the 16-point agreement.

The party favoured directly elected presidential system and re-appointment of the office bearers of the constitutional bodies including the judges. The UCPN-M said the Constitution Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly incorporated or removed some phrases against the agreement between the political parties and that should be rectified.

The UCPN-M said that the agreement was reached at a CA panel that citizenship by descent would be granted to children of Nepali citizens either on the basis of their father or mother’s Nepali nationality and the same should be retained. It said the wait period for foreign husband of Nepali woman to be able to apply for naturalised citizenship was unnecessarily long and should be reduced. It has also demanded to mention ‘ending… patriarchy…’ in the preamble of the draft constitution.

The party also said that the agreement was reached to include proportional inclusion in the constitution for marginalised communities but the CDC deleted the word ‘proportional’ which should be rectified. The UCPN-M said the CDC removed the word ‘there shall be no discrimination against women on the basis of gender’ from the draft constitution. It said that the agreement was reached to give right of strike to the labourers but that too had been removed from the draft.

The party said the draft incorporated provisions of unitary judiciary which was against the agreement between the major parties. It has also opposed the draft constitution’s proposal to retain districts, saying such a provision would be against the empowerment of the local bodies. The UCPN-M said the parties had agreed to have more than one language as the official language as per the suggestions of Language Commission but that was removed from the draft.

The party demanded re-appointment of office bearers of the constitutional bodies including judges and said that the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee should have 11 members and the panel should have the right to reject a nominee on the basis of majority.