Top officials at the Constituent Assembly (CA) Secretariat said that the leaders have to find a solution from within the amendment proposals that have been registered as of Saturday evening.Major political parties jointly registered their common amendments to various provisions of the constitution bill on Saturday, but Madhes-based and some other agitating parties have boycotted the process.
"Now, we cannot include any new provision in the constitution bill nor can we make any changes to the contents because the Interim Constitution and CA rules and regulations do not allow us to do so," said CA Chairman Subas Nembang.
Nembang has scheduled the next CA meeting for Tuesday to table the amendment proposals in plenary.
"But the leaders can incorporate the voice of the dissident parties through any of the amendment proposals if the ideas match," he said. "Otherwise, we can amend the constitution as per the demands of the disgruntled groups only after promulgating the new constitution."
As per the officials at the secretariat, at first the lawmakers who have registered the amendments will table their proposals and air their views.
Officials estimate that it may take a whole day for the presentation of the amendment proposals.
Nembang is likely to allow the parliamentary party leaders of all the political parties to address the CA meeting and record their views at the final stage of the constitution making process. Their addresses may stretch out for the entire day.
After that, all the lawmakers will be allowed to air their views in article-wise deliberations that are expected to last a couple of days. Officials informed that lawmakers are likely to get around five minutes each for airing their views during the article-wise deliberations.
The CA will then start the article-wise voting. At first, voting will be conducted on all the amendment proposals. Then each and every article will be endorsed by a two-thirds vote in voice voting. At this stage, the CA chairman has to conduct a proper division of votes with the lawmakers' signatures if 10 percent of the total number of lawmakers so demand.
Finally, the entire constitution bill shall be endorsed by two-thirds of the total CA members in a proper division of votes.
This may take some days as lawmakers have registered amendments demanding changes at hundreds of places.
Altogether 56 amendment proposals have been registered at the CA Secretariat, demanding amendments to around 200 articles. Those proposals require changes in over 1,300 places. Some demand changes of a single word, the deletion or addition of an article, or some other minor changes.
The joint amendment proposals registered by three major political parties - Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) - propose changes in 75 places. The new constitution bill has 302 articles in total.
Each and every amendment proposal should be decided through voting.
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