The parties had formed a five-member committee headed by UCPN (Maoist) Lawmaker Ek Raj Bhandari to draft the proposal with a view to making the prime ministerial election result-oriented. [break]
Radheshyam Adhikari of Nepali Congress (NC), Agni Kharel of CPN-UML, Anil Jha of Sadbhabana Party and Gayatri Sah of Nepali Janata Dal were members of the committee.
Hirdayesh Tripathi of Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), Chitra Bahadur KC of Rastriya Janamorcha, Sunil Prajapati of Nepal Workers Peasants Party, Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani of Rastriya Janashakti Party and Chandra Bahadur Gurung of Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal objected to the amendment proposal.
They said it is an “autocratic tendency” to not allow lawmakers to stay neutral and cast votes against a prime ministerial candidate. As per the new provision, if two or more candidates file their candidacies, lawmakers shall have to vote for a candidate of their choice but will have no option to vote “against” any of them.
They also accused the drafting members of incorporating provisions to appease the three major parties.
The previous version of the regulation allowed lawmakers to stand for and against any candidate notwithstanding the number of contenders.
Frustrated by the outcome of the 16 rounds of futile elections, leaders opted to not give lawmakers the option to vote against any candidate.
The amendment has also made it mandatory for a candidate to secure majority even if there is only one candidate in the prime ministerial race.
The draft has also proposed restarting the election process afresh if none of the contenders secure majority even after three rounds of voting.
As per the new amendment, there will be competition between all the candidates in the first and second round of voting while only two finalists will compete in the third round, which will also be the final round.
Next parliament session is scheduled for Thursday.
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