DistantNews
Support us
🇳🇵 Nepal /Elections & Politics

RSP must turn its parliamentary initiative into results

From Kathmandu Post · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified Ongoing story
  • A meeting of Nepal's House of Representatives was adjourned due to a lack of the minimum required lawmakers, highlighting issues with parliamentary attendance.
  • The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), despite its significant number of seats, faced this attendance lapse, prompting it to implement a Google Form system for tracking lawmaker presence.
  • This initiative aims to improve parliamentary functioning, drawing lessons from the unproductive tenures of previous Houses marred by internal disputes and obstructions.

Nepal's House of Representatives recently faced an adjournment due to the absence of the minimum required number of lawmakers, a situation that underscores ongoing challenges in parliamentary functioning.

While it is the responsibility of every lawmaker to ensure regular attendance, the onus of ensuring that the House functions smoothly lies with the ruling party.

Explaining the responsibility for maintaining parliamentary quorum.

The session required at least 69 lawmakers to proceed, but only 61 were present, leading the Speaker to postpone the meeting. While lawmaker attendance is a collective responsibility, the ruling party typically bears the onus of ensuring the House operates smoothly. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), holding a substantial number of seats, was implicated in this lapse.

It was complete negligence on the part of a party with close to a two-thirds majority to leave Parliament without the minimum presence of lawmakers just four months after the House began its work.

Criticizing the lack of lawmaker presence that led to the adjournment.

In response, the RSP is implementing measures to ensure its lawmakers' consistent attendance and engagement. Each lawmaker must now complete a Google Form detailing their attendance and provide advance notification if unable to attend. The party leadership believes this step will foster more organized and effective parliamentary sessions.

The party leadership believes the move will make parliamentary meetings more organised and effective, and rightly so.

Highlighting the RSP's rationale behind implementing attendance tracking.

This move comes as the RSP aims to differentiate itself from legacy parties, whose past performances have been criticized for ineffectiveness. Previous Houses have been plagued by internal conflicts, dissolutions, and procedural obstructions, hindering their core legislative duties. The RSP's initiative to track attendance is seen as a positive effort to correct these historical shortcomings and ensure the current House fulfills its mandate of enacting laws and facilitating productive discussions.

The initiative the RSP is taking to keep track of its lawmakers’ attendance is a positive step towards that eff

Concluding that the RSP's attendance tracking is a positive development.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Kathmandu Post. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog