Nepal misses deadline for new constitution, fresh elections called

Nepal's warring lawmakers missed a deadline for drafting a new constitution, plunging the country back into political crisis, Agence France-Presse reported.

The Constituent Assembly was elected in 2008 to draft a new constitution following a decade-long civil war, but it was not able to reach an agreement before its term expired at midnight on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

Its term had been extended four times, but the Supreme Court rejected any further extensions.

The country’s four main parties had disagreed over whether the states to be created by the constitution should be determined on the basis of ethnicity, the AP said.

"It is not possible to promulgate the new constitution within the deadline now. That possibility is out, 100 percent," senior Maoist leader Post Bahadur Bogati was quoted by Reuters as saying after the meeting in the capital, Kathmandu, on Sunday.

Police fired tear gas and beat protesters from rival factions who had gathered outside the meeting and the army was on alert across the country to prevent any outbreak of violence.

Reuters said the government has called fresh elections in November after a cabinet meeting decided against declaring a state of emergency in the Himalayan nation, which would have allowed parliament to be extended for six months.

The post-war constitution was intended to create a secular, democratic republic following the abolition of the Hindu monarchy after Maoists ended their revolt in 2006 and won elections two years later, according to AFP.

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