Lawmakers can't abstain from voting: SC

KATHMANDU, Dec 18: Ending a long-standing dispute over whether lawmakers can abstain from voting in parliament, the Supreme Court (SC) set a precedent in its history on Friday and said lawmakers must cast their votes for electing a new prime minister from the House.

The SC verdict establishes that the CPN-UML´s decision to abstain from voting for the last five months in the run-off prime ministerial election was unconstitutional.[break]

Responding to a writ petition filed by advocate Chandra Kanta Gyawali against the CPN-UML´s decision to stay neutral in the run-off election for PM, the full bench of SC Justices Bal Ram KC, Sushila Karki and Bharat Raj Upreti declared null and void the provisions related to neutrality and abstention from voting in the ´Working Procedure of the Constituent Assembly-2065´.

"People elected the lawmakers to write the constitution and form a government, among other purposes," reads the SC verdict, adding, "The decision to stay neutral and abstain from voting as per provisions under Articles 38 and 55 of the Interim Constitution, is unconstitutional."

The full bench has scrapped the provisions regarding neutrality and abstention from voting, effective from Friday.

"The public can never form a cabinet. It is the function of parliament to form a cabinet. Parliamentarians must say either yes or no in the prime ministerial voting process when they are physically present in parliament. They cannot abstain from voting nor can they say they won´t cast their vote for anyone, citing neutrality," the verdict further states.

SC scraps provisions related to neutrality and vote abstention in parliament

SC says parliamentarians must vote when physically present in House

PM must be elected by majority of parliamentarians

No one can be elected prime minister unopposed

Parliament can decide whether Paudel´s candidacy is still intact

Through the same verdict, the apex court also said that the lone prime ministerial candidate, Ram Chandra Paudel, cannot be declared prime minister unopposed. "The prime minister must be elected by a majority of parliamentarians. No one can ever be elected unopposed from parliament as prime minister," reads the verdict.

The SC has likewise interpreted the importance of the prime ministerial post. "The prime minister is not an office bearer of any organization. He is neither a single candidate contesting a post at any financial institution," the verdict further reads, "The prime minister cannot be elected like a lone candidate that the general assembly of a financial institution declares victorious."

Likewise, the apex court said that it is for parliament to decide whether the prime ministerial candidacy of Ram Chandra Paudel remains intact after the House was prorogued on November 20 in the wake of the Maoist assault on Finance Minister Surendra Pandey while he was preparing to unveil the budget in parliament.