Swift Shake Up
The interim constitution heralded as a document of comprehensive understanding among eight parties could not remain stable for more than a month
By A CORRESPONDENT
Five weeks after it was adopted unanimously by the eight parties – and also by other parties like Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and Rastriya Janashakti Party (RJP) – the interim constitution is all set to be amended.
The interim constitution, which would be in force for at least three years till the elected Constituent Assembly (CA) writes and adopts a new constitution, ran into rough waters less than 24 hours after it was promulgated when the little known Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) organized a surprisingly intense unrest in Terai region for three long weeks till the government finally relented and agreed to make changes in the interim statute to meet their demands.
Law Minister Narendra Bikram Nemwang registered a Bill to amend the interim constitution at the Parliament Secretariat on Sunday (Feb 18) 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.
On the other hand, despite the government’s moves to amend the constitution, the MJF has said that it will continue with its agitation – which was suspended for ten days on February 8 ostensibly to provide the government opportunity to create atmosphere for talks. The MJF chairman Upendra Yadav said that his organization will launch peaceful agitation between February 19 till 25. The MJF will then organize Terai bandh and blockade the custom points between February 26 and March 6 after which it will impose indefinite strike across the region. The MJF has stuck with its earlier demand that the Home Minister Krishna Sitaula resign to create environment for talks. The MJF has also described the manner with which the eight parties went ahead and decided to amend the constitution without talking with them as “arrogant.”
The eight parties, on their part, believe that their decision to amend the statute will address the grievances of the Madhesis and Janjatis. As per the amendment bill, the one month old constitution – which had been endorsed by the interim parliament unanimously on January 15 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.
