Nepal elects chairman of constitution drafting body

Nepal's constitution drafting body Constituent Assembly (CA) elected CPN-UML candidate Subas Chandra Nembang as its chairman on Tuesday. The senior-most lawmaker, Surya Bahadur Thapa, who was chairing the CA, announced Nembang has been elected for the top post of the 575-member CA, a body mandated to draw up a new constitution within a year, as he was the sole candidate in the House. Backed by the largest party Nepali Congress, UCPN (Maoist) and other opposition parties in the CA, the new CA chairman will also serve as a speaker in the House. Speaking to reporters after being elected as CA chairman, Nembang said that he will move ahead in uniting all the parties in the CA for drafting a new constitution within a year It is the second time that Nembang has been elected as CA chairman. In the previous CA, which was dissolved in May, 2012, Nembang was the CA chairman as well as speaker in the House. Before the election, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said his party did not file candidacy because the constitution drafting is a consensual process among parties. Earlier, Maoist was claiming the chairman of CA. However, he said Nemabang did not perform well in the previous CA. Born in 1953 in Ilam's Suntalbari village, Nembang is a law practitioner by profession and has hold Bachelor's degree in law. As a senior advocate, he was engaged in Nepal's parliamentary process and the restoration of democracy in 1990. With the election of CA chairman, Nepal is expected to soon start the constitution drafting process.