KIRAN PANDAY FLAMES OF SOLIDARITY: Women CA members light candles in Basantapur on Wednesday to call for an end to violence against women.

On Thursday the CA made its sixth amendment to the interim constitution. Legal experts and experienced politicians have called on the CA to stop making so many amendements , saying that such changes are thwarting the process of the CA's role-to write the constitution. This one was about the age of voters for the up coming re-pollings.

Constitution lawyer Bhimarjun Acharya warns against making such frequent re-writes to what is simply an interim constitution. It is not justifiable to amend the constitution time and again for petty issues and at the whim of the CA, he says.

The Maoists have no intention of penning a new constitution while other political parties are blindly following the Maoists, claims the odd-man-out UML leader KP Oli. "Seven months have passed now but we have not started the process of writing a new constitution, for which the CA was formed," he told Nepali Times, "I have been insisting from the very beginning that the Maoists are focussed on staying in power and controlling resources."

The 14 constitution drafting committees should be formed by 15 December but the political parties have not yet even suggested any names for them.

Oli adds, "It is a serious matter not to be worried at all about the real business of the CA when we have only 18 months left. What if they change the time to complete the constitution and extend their CA term by themselves?"

The delay is not unexpected-the CA election was deferred twice. It took three months for the government to nominate 26 members after the election. The nine commissions which were set out in the interim constitution two years ago have still not been formed with the exception of the Land Reform Commission, which was named this Wednesday. After the CA election in April, the constitution was amended to elect the president and again to address the demands of the Madhesis and Janajatis.

Political analysts cite another reason for delay as the inherent resistance of political parties to the idea of federalism. The NC and the UML only reluctantly accepted the concept of federalism under a wave of popular pressure while a faction of Maoists is still resistant. Collectively the national parties also fear the loss of control that a federal structure could bring as regional parties gain strength. They fear bedlam in the house as discussions begin on state restructuring-with no sign as yet of the commission being named.

Dewan Rai