176 out of total 302 articles endorsed

Monarchy reinstatement proposal rejected

KATHMANDU, Sept 15: Constituent Assembly (CA) meeting on Tuesday endorsed 119 articles of the Constitution Bill through voice votes, giving continuity to the clause-wise voting process that was set in motion from Sunday.

That takes the number of articles endorsed so far by the CA to 176. The officials at the CA secretariat expect the clause-wise voting on all the 302 articles to conclude by Wednesday evening.

The CA full House had endorsed only three articles on Sunday. But by Tuesday, the CA had voted on 58 articles covering major issues of the new constitution such as republican system, the provisions on president and vice-president, parliamentary system, federal and provincial parliaments and the judiciary, among other issues.Tuesday’s House deliberations began with voting on the amendment proposed by the chairman of Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N), Kamal Thapa, seeking reinstatement of monarchy, which was rejected by two-thirds majority.

The first meeting of the first CA in 2008 had decided to replace monarchy in Nepal with a republican system. But the RPP-N had been lobbying for the reinstatement of the institution.

Other articles endorsed are related to state restructuring, functioning of federal executive, federal legislature, federal management procedures, federal financial procedures, the attorney general and functioning of the provincial executives.
As per the amendment proposals registered by the three major political parties, the article that envisions formation of a Constitutional Court has been replaced by a provision that calls for establishing a Constitutional Bench at the Supreme Court.

The proposed bench will oversee cases related to constitutional issues and disputes between the federal government and provinces or between the provinces or that between provinces and local government under them.
Also, the meeting endorsed yet another amendment proposal of the major three parties that changed the provision to have ad-hoc justices at the Supreme Court. As per the new provision, there shall be no temporary justices at the apex court.

Of the total 119 articles endorsed on Tuesday, 56 articles were passed unanimously, while the rest were passed by two-thirds majority. Of them, 23 articles were endorsed with amendments as proposed by the three major political parties.

The process of endorsing the provisions in the Constitution Bill has been expedited as lawmakers from fringe parties, including Ram Kumar Rai, Kumar Khadka, Hari Charan Sah, Shiva Lal Thapa, Yashoda Lama and Shyam Shrestha, withdrew a large number of amendment proposals.

The CA meeting that commenced at 10 am lasted till 7 pm with three intervals in between.