Constitutions

President Pervez Musharraf made last-minute changes to Pakistan's constitution Friday, shoring up his legal defenses before lifting a 6-week-old state of emergency, Atty. Gen. Malik Mohammed Qayyum said. The U.S.-backed leader cast Pakistan into turmoil and raised serious doubts over the credibility of next month's parliamentary elections by imposing a state of emergency Nov. 3. He is expected to lift it and restore the constitution today.

President Chen Shui-bian pledged today to push for a new constitution for Taiwan in his last two years in office, despite warnings from China and growing domestic opposition. "If social conditions are ripe, who says we cannot hold a referendum on a new constitution by next year?" Chen said in a New Year's message. The Taiwanese leader's remarks appeared to crush expectations that he might give in to mounting domestic pressure to reconcile with China.

The Nepalese parliament voted Sunday to call elections for an assembly to redraw the country's constitution, an action that could signal the beginning of the end for the monarchy that has ruled this Himalayan kingdom for more than 200 years. During the same session, the newly sworn-in prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, also asked Nepal's Maoist rebels, who have waged a bloody decade-long insurgency in the countryside, to come to the bargaining table.

One lawmaker found the syntax of the new bylaws somehow wanting. He looked vainly around Iraq's assembly chambers for a grammarian. Another insisted Sunday that the ground rules being written for Iraq's elected officials must dub them "representatives," not merely "members" of parliament. Why, asked a third fledgling legislator, didn't their proposed bylaws make it clear they held supreme authority over government spending, as well?

Italians began voting on constitutional changes that proponents say would increase stability in a country known for its revolving-door governments. The reforms would strengthen the premier's powers, trim the size of the legislature and transfer some authority from Rome to the country's regions. Center-left Prime Minister Romano Prodi opposes the measure, written by his predecessor. Italy has had 61 governments since World War II.

Opponents of President Evo Morales staged a 24-hour strike in four Bolivian provinces to protest the governing party's handling of an assembly that is rewriting the constitution. Street clashes between strikers and unions aligned with Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party broke out in Santa Cruz and the southern city of Tarija. The strikers say the party is ignoring the provinces' demands for greater autonomy.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday reaffirmed his intention to leave office in 2008 at the end of his second term as required by the constitution, but suggested that he might continue to wield influence.

Serbians voted on a new constitution that would reassert the nation's claim on Kosovo, the breakaway province whose future status is under negotiation at U.N.-brokered talks. But most of Kosovo's residents, ethnic Albanians who want independence, were left off the voter lists for the two-day referendum. The Serbian government says the proposed constitution consolidates democracy and the rule of law in the country, which hopes to revive membership talks with the European Union.

Serbian voters have approved a new constitution reasserting Serbia's claim over breakaway Kosovo province, independent observers and Serbia's prime minister said Sunday. The Belgrade-based Center for Free Elections and Democracy said its sample count after polls closed in the two-day vote indicated that 96% of those who participated in the referendum supported the draft charter. About 53.3% of the country's 6.

After six days of anti-government protests, opposition and pro-government lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan said Tuesday evening that they had agreed to a new draft constitution sharply reducing the president's power. The document will be considered by the full 75-member parliament today, they said. It was not immediately clear whether President Kurmanbek Bakiyev would agree to the proposed constitution, but he has said he will go along with a shift in powers from the presidency to parliament.