Parties okay three-month extension of CA term
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The political parties on Monday extended the term of the Constituent Assembly by three more months through a near-unanimous vote two days before the expiry of its current deadline.
The move follows positive vibes among the parties after the election of UCPN (Maoist) Baburam Bhattarai as prime minister on Sunday. Debates over two previous CA extensions ran late into the night when parties resorted to political one-upmanship and got locked in hectic back-room parleys to extract concessions from one another.
“The endorsement of the term extension was painless this time because we felt there was no need for putting any conditions to it,” said Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Poudel. “The newly elected prime minister’s party has committed to complete the peace process in 45 days, hence we are optimistic that we can bring the new constitution within the new deadline.”
Some 537 votes were cast in favour of the government bill seeking the continuation of CA till November 30. Of the 541 lawmakers attending Sunday’s House session, only four RPP-Nepal lawmakers stood against the extension.
The talks held between top leaders of the three major parties under the initiatives of Speaker Subas Nembang during the sidelines of the oath taking ceremony of Prime Minister Bhattarai led to the almost smooth passage of the extension process. Maoist leaders softened their position and didn’t introduce an amendment seeking six-month extension. “We still believe that the next three months will be insufficient,” said Maoist Chief Whip Dev Gurung. “But, a new extension can be sought if required in future.”
The Jhala Nath Khanal led government had registered the amendment bill at the Parliament secretariat last Tuesday proposing the term extension of CA. Deputy PM and Minister for Home Affairs Bijay Kumar Gachhadar tabled the proposal in Monday’s House session after Bhattarai’s government decided to take ownership of the previous government’s proposal.
The President’s Office last week had asked the parliament to ensure the passage of the bill on CA’s extension at least a day before the expiry of the deadline. Officials of the Parliament Secretariat had lobbied with parties against last-minute extension arguing that festivals like Teej and Eid were scheduled for Wednesday.
Posted on: 2011-08-30 09:43
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