Voting on new constitution starts

Process to take a few days

KATHMANDU, Sept 14: The Constituent Assembly (CA) has at last begun clause-wise voting on constitution bill, setting the stage for the promulgation of new constitution within a few days.

At the beginning of the voting, the CA meeting on Sunday endorsed the first three articles--Article 1 to Article 3--of the new constitution by an overwhelming majority of the CA through voice votes.

The Article 1 and Article 2 were endorsed unanimously by the CA members present at the meeting, while the Article 3 was passed by a majority. The first two articles were endorsed unopposed as no member registered any amendment proposal to those provisions, while lawmakers from some fringe parties proposed amendment to the Article 3 that defined the Nation.

In the 601-member CA, two seats have remained vacant since its formation as political parties didn't nominate any lawmaker for these positions. Also, the seat that has been lying vacant after the death of Rastriya Prajatantra Party's Surya Bahadur Thapa is yet to be filled. With Sadbhavana Party lawmaker Sanjay Sah under suspension and 57 lawmakers from various Madhes-based parties boycotting the ongoing CA process, the effective strength of the CA at present is 597.

As per the CA regulations, CA Chairman Subas Nembang will conduct clause-wise voting for each and every articles of the constitution bill. After endorsing each and every article separately by two-thirds majority through voice votes, the constitution bill shall be endorsed in its entirety by two-thirds in a proper division of votes with signatures of lawmakers.

As the three major political parties - Nepali Congress (206), CPN-UML (183) and UCPN-Maoist (84) - with support from some other small political parties have stood united in favor of producing the new constitution, the process of endorsing the constitution bill with two-thirds majority is expected to be completed smoothly within the next few days.

Leaders from the three major political parties have succeeded in convincing lawmakers not only within their own parties but also the leaders from other small parties to withdraw their amendment proposals.

The CA saw an overwhelming presence of lawmakers on Sunday, including those from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal that had earlier announced to boycott the CA process rejoined Sunday.

Officials at the CA secretariat said that they have made all preparations with a plan to promulgate new constitution by September 18 or 19.

"If everything goes as planned, we will endorse the constitution bill by September 17 and introduce it next day," said Nembang.