Nepal’s Parliament on Saturday voted to amend the country’s Constitution with a two-thirds majority four months after its promulgation, in a bid to resolve the political crisis involving the minority Madhesi community.
The amendment aims at resolving the ongoing agitation by the Madhesis. The lawmakers of the agitating parties, however, boycotted the voting saying the purported amendment was incomplete and will not address their demands.
The amendment addresses two key demands of the Madhesis — proportionate representation and seat allocation in the Parliament on the basis of population.
When put to vote, the bill garnered 461 votes in its favour while seven lawmakers voted against it.
The amendment includes provisions such as proportionate and inclusive representation of all marginalised communities, including the Madhesis in all state mechanisms and allocation of seats in Parliament on the basis of population. For this, three articles — Article 42, Article 84 and Article 286 — were amended.