NEPAL: 4 lawmakers stall House for 3 hours

Women lawmakers and four other members of parliament from marginalized and dalit communities obstructed the parliamentary proceedings on Sunday demanding appropriate representation of their communities in the state organs.

No sooner had Speaker Subas Nembang begun the House meeting than the women lawmakers from all the political parties -- except a few members -- trooped into the well and sloganeered demanding fair representation of women in all the state organs.

After 15 minutes of chanting, the speaker urged the lawmakers to take their seats as their “valid demand had properly drawn the attention of the authorities concerned”. The lawmakers then stopped sloganeering and took their seats.

Lila Nyaichyai of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, however, didn´t participate in the demonstration.

Four lawmakers -- Bishwendra Paswan, Buddha Ratna Manandhar, Rukmini Chaudhary and Sadrul Miya Haq -- didn´t stop chanting slogans despite repeated requests from the speaker.

Three-hour long sloganeering

The women lawmakers chanted slogans in front of the rostrum for nearly three hours until the speaker adjourned the meeting and announced the next sitting for May 11.

After sloganeering for around one hour, Manandhar sat cross-legged on the floor for nearly two hours. But Paswan led the team throughout, while Chaudhary and Sadrul backed him.

They demanded that a full proportional electoral model be adopted in the new constitution and dalits and marginalized communities be ensured more representation in the state organs.

The four lawmakers have been obstructing parliamentary proceedings for a couple of weeks. They have also been obstructing constitution writing process in the Constitutional Committee (CC) accusing the major political parties of being reluctant to incorporate their issues in the new constitution.

Paswan vandalizes PM´s seat

Paswan vandalized the prime minister´s seat in the front row of the ruling bench during the demonstrations. When women lawmakers were sloganeering, Paswan dislodged the seat and tried to break it. But Maoist lawmaker Hisila Yami, CPN-UML lawmaker Padma Aryal and other two members from Rastriya Prajatantra Party- Nepal -- Kunti Shahi and Babina Moktan Lawati -- stopped him.