Kathmandu – Since the Congress-UML coalition government has taken the issue of constitutional amendment forward, opposition parties have also started discussing the agenda of constitutional amendment.

Top leaders of the main opposition party, the CPN-Maoist Center, and the CPN-Unified Socialist Party held a dialogue at Singha Durbar on Thursday regarding the issue of constitutional amendment.

The recently concluded central committee meeting of the CPN-Maoist Center has put forward three agendas for constitutional amendment. In which, it is said that a directly elected executive president or directly elected executive chief, a fully proportional electoral system, and a provision for members outside the parliament to become ministers should be included in the constitution.

The issue of constitutional amendment has already been raised between the coalition parties in the agreement reached during the formation of the government, which stated that “the government will review the strengths, weaknesses and complexities that have emerged in practice after the constitution came into effect and prioritize the necessary amendments to the constitution and the formulation of laws accordingly for political stability.”

Jevan Ram Shrestha, leader of the Unified Socialist Party of Nepal, says that it is natural for the opposition parties to hold internal discussions as the government moves forward with its preparations. He also said that the party is forming a committee to discuss the constitutional amendment. The Unified Socialist Party had formed a constitutional amendment suggestion task force already.

Another opposition party, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), is also working on forming a suggestion task force for constitutional amendment. The central committee meeting of the RSP also formed the task force under the coordination of Chief Whip Santosh Pariyar on Sunday.