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Bill to amend constitution registered at the parliament

Following the approval by the cabinet meeting, Law Minister Narendra Bikram Nemwang registered a Bill to amend the interim constitution at the Parliament Secretariat on Sunday evening.

The Bill has been drafted by incorporating the issues raised in the address made by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, on February 7, to fulfill demands of Madhesis and Janjatis.

According to the bill, the one and a half month old constitution – which had been endorsed by the interim parliament unanimously on January 25 by rejecting calls for rectifying its weaknesses that were pointed out by legal experts as well as MPs themselves – will now be amended to state that Nepal will head towards federal democratic structure through the Constituent Assembly (CA).

Likewise, the bill has provisions to reconstitute the electoral constituencies on the basis of equal population, geographic characteristics and peculiarities, and increment of percent of population in Terai region. The existing constituencies in hills and mountains won't be reduced but the number of those in Terai where population has increased will be increased proportionally.

The bill also states that the elections to the CA will be held on the basis of Mixed electoral system – whereby direct elections will be held in districts on the basis of existing (and additional constituencies) constituencies along with proportional representation-based elections to be held simultaneously by treating the whole country as a single constituency.

Furthermore, the bill also states that a high-level five-member Electoral Constituency Fixation Commission will be formed to be led by a former judge of Supreme Court (SC) and including geographic, demographic and social experts as members.

It also calls for providing proportional representation of Madhesis, women, Janjatis, Dalits, disabled people and other minorities in all structure of the state.

The bill, however, does not have any provision regarding the election of Prime Minister. There were calls to insert provision whereby two-third of MPs should elect and/or remove the PM.

The interim parliament will discuss and endorse the amendment bill in its next meeting on February 20.

Meanwhile, the parties have formed a task force including representatives of all the parties to decide about the issue of whether to provide temporary voters with the opportunity to cast their votes in the CA elections. The Maoists are firmly demanding that temporary voters, too, be allowed to cast their votes. nepalnews.com sd Feb 18 07