Public holiday to mark historic announcement, no agreement on speaker

To mark the historic declaration of the interim constitution, the government has declared a public holiday on Monday. The interim legislature including the Maoist had endorsed the interim constitution on Monday recently after it was promulgated by now dissolved House of Representatives (HoR).

Reports quoted Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula as saying that the government declared public holiday to mark the milestone in the peace process. Though the first sitting of the new legislature was held Monday night, it failed to select the speaker of the new legislature. CPN-UML and Maoist have claimed for the speaker.

The last session of the House of Representatives (HoR) had promulgated the interim constitution Monday evening. After the announcement of the promulgation of interim constitution, HoR and national assembly were automatically dissolved. The interim constitution has 25 Parts, 167 Articles and three Annexes.

After the dissolution of the HoR, new legislators had entered in the house. Bal Bahadur Rai, the eldest member of the new legislature-parliament had administered oath to the members of the interim legislature.

Before this, speaker of the HoR Subash Nembang had declared the dissolution of the HoR after the election was held to promulgate the constitution. The proposal of prime minister to promulgate the constitution was passed with 185 votes against zero. Total 150 lawmakers were present in the meeting.

Addressing the house session, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had urged all political leaders to support 'this' historic announcement.

Making his remarks to the queries raised by the MPs who tabled their amendment proposals in the interim constitution, Koirala said that the new interim legislature parliament would consider the recommendations of the parties.

Premier Koirala pointed out the Maoists' decision to enter main politics by laying down their arms has the significant importance. Koirala also asked the MPs to withdraw their amendment proposals to ease the process.

Expressing his firm commitment to the democratic principle, PM Koirala appealed to all the political parties, civil society and the people to contribute from their level to hold the constituent assembly election in June in a free, fair and peaceful manner.

Speaker Subash Nembang said "The interim constitution has been unanimously approved at 7:00pm after no 'nays' were heard during voice voting."

Prior to the voting for the promulgation of the interim constitution, speaker Nembang had provided time to the lawmakers if they wished to withdraw the constitution amendment proposal.

Lawmakers Surya Bahadur Thapa (chairman of Rastriya Janshakti Party), Govinda Bikram Shah (RPP), Navraj Subedi (Peoples Front Nepal) and Hari Acharya had refused to withdraw their amendment proposals. However, their proposals were rejected by the voice voting during the meeting.

MPs Gopal Koirala, Rajendra Mahatto, Biddhyadevi Bhandari, Parshuram Meghi Gurung, Bijaya Kumar Gachchedar had withdrawn their proposals.

After the promulgation of interim constitution, the new interim legislature has been automatically formed. The interim legislature comprises 329 member in which Maoist 83 seats.