UCPN (Maoist) lawmaker Ekraj Bhandari, coordinator of the drafting committee, tabled the proposal at the parliament meeting on Monday. Speaker Subas Nembang called the next House meeting for Tuesday with a plan to endorse the proposal.[break]
As per the new provision, if two or more candidates file their candidacies, lawmakers shall vote ´for´ a candidate of their choice but they will have no option to vote ´against´ any contender.
However, lawmakers can vote on both ´for´ and ´against´ options if there is only one candidate in the race. As per the existing regulations, lawmakers can 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 an option to vote against any candidate with a view to make the voting result-oriented.
The committee members have reached an understanding that voting for all the candidates should be conducted at the same time, not one at a time as in the existing provision. According to the existing provision, a vote for each candidate is tabled separately for decision as a motion in parliament.
With the amendment, lawmakers will not be allowed to abstain or stay neutral during the voting.
The leaders have also incorporated a provision making it mandatory for a candidate to secure majority even if there is only one candidate.
As per the existing provision, if a single candidate files candidacy, he/she would be elected unopposed. Prime Minister Madhav Nepal was elected unopposed as no one was fielded against him.
Vote to start afresh after third round
The draft has also proposed restarting the election process afresh if none of the contenders secures majority even after three rounds of voting.
The committee has proposed all the candidates be allowed for competition for the first and second rounds. There will be competition between only two candidates securing top votes as other contenders will be eliminated from the second round.
Although the Nepali Congress (NC) leaders were for selecting two finalists from the first round, they gave up their stance as Maoist and UML leaders insisted that other candidates be eliminated only from the second round.
The parties formed the drafting committee to amend the provisions related to the prime ministerial election after 16 rounds of voting failed to elect a new prime minister.
The five-member committee is headed by Maoist lawmaker Bhandari. Radheshyam Adhikari of the NC, Agni Kharel of CPN-UML, Anil Jha of Sadbhabana Party and Gayatri Sah of Nepali Janata Dal are its members.
The extended deadline given by the president to the political parties to form a national consensus government as per Article 38 (1) is expiring Wednesday.
After the expiry of the deadline, parliament will resume the election process as per Article 38 (2) that requires election of a candidate, who can secure majority of parliament, as prime minister.
New process to begin from Jan 27
Sources at the parliament secretariat said it will start the new process to elect prime minister through vote on January 27. "The president is likely to correspond with the secretariat on January 26 when the deadline will expire. So, the speaker will convene the Business Advisory Committee meeting on January 27 and fix the date," the source said. The speaker may fix the date after a gap of some four or five days. Officials at the secretariat said that the country may get a new prime minister by the first week of February if everything goes as envisaged by the proposed provisions in the regulations.
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