RPP unlikely to vote in favor of constitution amendment bill

KATHMANDU, Aug 19: The constitution amendment bill is scheduled to be put to vote at the legislature-parliament next week.

While the ruling parties Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Center) seems confident that the amendment bill, which was tabled at the parliament earlier this week, will get required support for endorsement, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) says that it will not back the bill.

Talking to Rishi Dhamala during a radio program ‘Nepali Bahas’, at Nepali Radio Network, RPP Vice-chairman Buddhiman Tamang said that his party will not vote in favor of the bill.

“As most of the leaders in the party have expressed their views that they would stand against the bill, the party is likely to decide considering the same,” he said.

Tamang has claimed that most the RPP leaders, at the party’s central committee meeting, have expressed their views that they would not support the bill arguing that amendment in constitution was not necessary.

Tamang also claimed that RPP had never officially finalized whether to vote for or against the bill.

“The party had handed the responsibility to decide over the matters of amendment to central committee. But now, as the party has divided.. it is not a different thing to have different opinion regarding the bill,” he added.

He also accused the government to have had hand in splitting the party.

The tabled constitution amendment bill requires 396 lawmakers to get endorsed. But the government has 359 votes in favor. The ruling coalition NC and MC has 207 while RJPN has 25 votes.

While, the main opposition party CPN-UML has said that it will not obstruct the process but has taken stand to fail the amendment bill. The opposition has 193 votes, including UML 180 and are 5 votes short to fail the bill.