Lawmakers may not have to obey whip

KATHMANDU, Sept 26 - All political parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) are close to consensus over CA members ignoring the party whip.Nepali Congress (NC) leader Nara Hari Acharya said they are close to agreement on scrapping the provision of whip in the CA. "We have agreed not to ...

A meeting of Constituent Assembly Regulation Drafting Committee (CARDC) held today also decided to finalize the Regulations in the next meeting likely to be held on Saturday.

Acharya, a member of CARDC, said they have also agreed to do away with the provision of opposition leader in the CA.  The process of finalizing the draft of the CA Regulations has been delayed due to differences among political parties on whether they can exercise party-whip over their members.

While major parties except NC argue that they should be allowed to exercise whip over their CA members, small parties have remained firm on their stance that CA members should be allowed to exercise their vote on the basis of personal judgment.

Maoist leader Dina Nath Sharma said that CARDC meeting decided to form a 61-member Constitutional Committee to ensure representation of all parties in the CA. "We have agreed to form a separate small sub-committee under the Constitutional Committee for the swift drafting of the constitution," he said.