New Publications from UNDP     |
Home » »
What is a Constituent Assembly really like?Though many people have heard of the Constituent Assembly, few really feel they have any idea of what it is really about. Partly this may be because people do not know what a constitution is about. We can deal with this by saying that a constitution is a collection of rules about how the government is to function, how the people are to be involved with the government, what the rights of the people are to be, especially in regard to the government. We can expect the constitution to deal with the election system, the powers of the parliament, how the leaders of the government are chosen, how the government must respect the rights of the people, with the courts, with regulating political parties, with ensuring that the government and the public service are accountable to the people, and with setting up a system of government for various parts of the country outside Kathmandu, with powers and resources and structures of government - a federal system. There are other likely topics, too - like environment, education, the position of the military etc. Even if people understand this, they may still not have a mental picture of a Constituent Assembly. We can get a flavour of the event from the experience of other countries. One country that has a Constituent Assembly is sitting now is Bolivia - high in the Andes of South America. The Assembly was appointed after President Morales came to power, the first person from an indigenous group to hold that position. His main constituency is the indigenous peoples. One might say that his mandate is inclusion. The Constituent Assembly sits in the old city of Sucre. It does not have to serve as the parliament of the country as well (unlike the Constituent Assembly for Nepal). Its rules describe it as "an extraordinary political event, emerging from the crisis of the State, and the struggles of society and installed by popular mandate." It is the "greatest expression of democracy". It holds full powers to write the new constitutional text and has the mandate to transform and construct a New Bolivian State. The Assembly was elected last year and is made up of 255 members. These could not include Ministers, members of Parliament, and public officials and public servants (except universty staff). Political parties and organisations of citizens and indigenous peoples could contest the elections. There were 70 geographical constituencies for each of which a party or association contesting had to put forward three candidates. The top three persons were elected - but if they all belonged to the same party that party could get only two members and the highest scoring candidate from another party was elected. And there were 9 broader constituencies from each of which 5 candidates were elected - and each participating party had to put forward 5 candidates for each. This was a proportional representation election - that is the top polling party got 2, and the next 3 parties got 1 seat each. There were gender distribution requirements for each set of candidates: at least one of the three for each smaller constituency, and 2 of the 5 in the large constituencies The Assembly was given a period of not less than 6 months and not more than one year to complete its task - but it has had to extend by several months. A major reason for this was that approving the procedural rules took 5 months - the main problem being over the percentage needed to approve the articles of the new Constitution (something that is already decided for Nepal in the Interim Constitution). The law says that the Constituent Assembly must have translators and interpreters so that members can express themselves in their native languages. The plenary sessions of the Assembly are public and the media can publish the proceedings. Every Assembly member had to belong to one 21 committees which have been doing the bulk of the work. The committees had to reflect the membership of the Constituent Assembly as a whole. The committees have the power to collect the views of people, including to travel around the country. In March and April they were holding hearings across the country and receiving suggestions for articles in the new Constitution. For example the Committee on Economic Development received suggestions for 369 articles. And by now they have put together their proposals on the topic of the committee. Then committees whose recommendations overlapped had joint meetings to resolve any problems. This work was going on from mid-July this year. An account on the internet describes how a group of Professional Associations insisted on meeting two committees that were in joint session to iron out any differences - the New State Structure Committee and the Economic Development and Finance Committee. The Professional Association members were pressing for the Constitution to include specific protection for professional bodies. On their part some Assembly members complained that young professional could not afford the associations' membership fees. Apparently a meeting resulted in the committee members agreeing to include what the associations wanted in their draft constitutional provisions, and the associations agreed to reduce their membership fees. The time has now come to present the views of the Constituent Assembly to the people. Groups of members from the various committees went to different parts of the country. They were distributing CDs with the reports of the various committees, and meeting members of the public. An account of a meeting organised by a civil society group, describes the enthusiasm of the people. The packed meeting lasted four and a half hours, in which time the represetantives of the Assembly explained the proposals, and heard questions and suggestions. The account says: It was impressive to see representatives so deeply interested in the new structure of the State, about the changes they were making to the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches. In each of the representatives' presentations, one could sense a real hope about the new Constitution and the changes it could bring - from providing more controls and transparency to curb corruption in government to more recognition of the diversity and rights of the peoples that make up this country. And on the public response: Audience participation was not just limited to applauding. The audience got downright rowdy at times, particularly during the presentation on how corruption would be controlled. The feeling, more often than not, was that long-standing injustices would finally be removed from their lives. The next stage is to take the ideas back and make any necessary changes. Then a "Settlement Committee" will produce a coherent draft from all the committee proposals. After the full draft constitution is adopted by the Constituent Assembly, it must be submitted to the people through a referendum. But all is not well with the Bolivian process. Some have reported that committees have been reluctant to change their ideas once they have formulated them. A campaign to move the capital to Sucre from La Paz threatens to divide the Assembly. And recently indigenous peoples were complaining that the CA was not giving them what they wanted. The President of the country organised a march in support of the CA. In September the Assembly went into recess to allow various committees to try to resolve the contentious issues. The recess had to be extended because this was proving very difficult. In October a public opinion survey showed that only 39% of Bolivian approved of the work of the CA. Some people were expressing doubt whether it would ever be able to finish its work by its new December 2007 deadline. Sources Website of the Constituent Assembly Blog of Democracy Center BBC news Angus Reid Global Monitor Mabblog |
||||||||||||||||
^ Home 
|
Copyright © 2008 | All Rights Reserved | Constitution Advisory Support Unit, UNDP |
