Constitutional Reform
Focus On Local Governance

POLITICAL parties have talked of amendment to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990. All the major political organisations represented in the Parliament have agreed on the need to reform constitution to respond to the challenges and exigencies of the situation. The Prime Minister was said to have committed to constitutional amendment and it was even reported that the constitutional reform would have been in the last winter session of the Parliament. Nepali Congress , UML and RPP worked out the proposals on behalf of the respective organisations and floated them for wider dissemination and consumption. However, the last session of the Parliament could not see the proposal for the amendment to the Constitution admitted in the House for consideration . There are reasons why this could not be done.

Discussion

The important one being the discussions on amendment to the Constitution should be broad-based and much more inputs and ideas should be generated to ascertain and validate the merits of the proposals. It was not possible to achieve that in a short while. Moreover, some legal pundits objected to the idea of amending the constitution during the time of emergency arguing that open and critical discussions were not possible when the fundamental rights of the citizens were suspended. The main opposition party CPN(UML) was insistent on amending the basic law of the land and even went to the extent of blaming the government for backtracking on the issue.

Let us leave aside the debate whether the Constitution ‘s amendment was appropriate or not during the time of emergency. If the proposals put forth by the parties for this exercise are taken due note, they definitely carry some merit and meaning. There have been identical issues and propositions raised by the parties for constitutional reform. The important issues put forth by the parties for the purpose of the constitutional amendment are related to reforms in electoral process, strengthening agencies to combat corruption, limiting the size of the council of ministers and giving constitutional security and status to the local government institutions.

It is to be noted that the provision relating to the local government has not been incorporated in the Constitution as a result of which decentralisation and local governance in Nepal survive on a fragile and weak foundation. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 does not provide an explicit scheme of the local governance though it provisions for widest participation of the people in the governance of the country. This has called for initiatives on the part of the the political parties and stakeholders to give constitutional recognition to the local governance.

The associations of local bodies like ADDC/N have welcomed the initiatives to provide constitutional security for the existence of local boidies. The association discussed the issue further and developed some proposals relevant to constitutional redesigning to give more value and strength to decentralisation. The AADC/N issued a list of proposals some two weeks ago in a press meet and made its propositions public for incorporation in the constitution.

According to the proposals, the constitution should add a chapter on local governance and decentralisation and spell out the composition and functions of the local bodies in an unambigious manner. The ADDC/N has proposed that the election of the district president should be direct and he or she should be elected by direct adult suffrage. This makes him or her accountable to the people.

The local bodies should be guaranteed financial, administrative and political autonomy and the national parliament should have a committee to oversee the progress in the area of decentralisation. The local bodies should have the right to make bylaws subject to the provisions of the constitution and act of the parliament. The most important proposal advanced by the ADDC/N is relating to the representation of the local government office bearers to the Upper House of the Parliament.

Clear Division

Moreover, the constitutional amendment should provide a clear division and demarcation of the roles and responsibilities of the central and local government. The central government should abide by the principles of limited government and chose to keep some essential power with it. The details should be decentralised to the local bodies. The proposals regarding constitutional amendment for incorporation of provisions regarding local governance are commendable. Should the political parties agree on the amendment to the Constitution in future they should elect to give decentralisation greater priority so that it becomes a subject of constitutional ambit. This would lend more clarity and legitimacy to the process of strengthening decentra-lisation in the country.

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