The prescheduled sitting of the interim legislative parliament has been postponed till May 14 after the parties failed to arrive at a consensus on resuming parliamentary proceedings.
Rastriya Prajatantra Party chairman Pashupati Shumshere Rana awaits his vehicle outside the Parliament building after the House failed to sit on Wednesday, May 9, 2007. nepalnews.com/NPA
Rastriya Prajatantra Party chairman Pashupati Shumshere Rana awaits his…
Speaker Subash Nemwang in a notice Wednesday morning announced the House sitting postponed. Nemwang made the announcement after Madhesi lawmakers associated with different parties refused to allow parliamentary proceedings unless there demands were met.
The sitting of the House was scheduled to resume at 11:00 am.
Talking to reporters after issuing the notice, Speaker Nemwang said continuous deadlock in the parliament was “very disappointing”.
The eight parties failed to reach a consensus on normalising business in the House despite an understanding yesterday among the leaders of four major parties – Nepali Congress, CPN (UML), CPN (Maoist) and NC (D).
The House was adjourned for two weeks, until today, after the Maoist and the Madhesi lawmakers disrupted five successive sittings putting forth their respective demands.
The Maoist lawmakers have been demanding government’s clarification regarding the delay in announcing the date for constituent assembly election, as well as annulment of the Electoral Constituency Delimitation Commission’s recommendations, while the Madhesi MPs want a census before fixing electoral constituencies.