Janata Samajwadi Party announces phase-wise protest demanding Prez Bhandari’s resignation

NL Today

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Kathmandu: The Janata Samajwadi Party has announced a phase-wise protest demanding the resignation of President Bidya Devi Bhandari for breaching the constitution by refusing to authenticate the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

A meeting of the Madhesh Province committee of the party decided to stage protests in all the province’s eight districts from Saturday, said Secretary of Madhesh Province committee, Dinesh Yadav.

As per the protest plan, the party will hold an interaction with the civil society, intellectuals, businessmen, teachers, legal professionals, and media persons in the headquarters of all the eight districts of the province on Saturday, and sister organizations of the party will stage protest against President Bhandari and burn effigies on September 27.

The party will hold interactions at the municipal level on September 29 and protests at municipal and ward levels on October 1-3.

The refusal by the Head of the State has miffed up the parties in the ruling alliance. They have termed the move by President as an attack on the constitutional system.

President Bhandari on Tuesday refused to endorse the Bill to amend the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2063 BS which was endorsed twice by both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly within the stipulated time.

The 15-day timeline given to the President by the Constitution for certification expired at midnight on Tuesday.

Article 113 (4) of the Nepal Constitution has enshrined a provision that the President should compulsorily certify the bill when it was sent to the President twice for authentication.

Earlier, both the Houses of the Federal Parliament had sent the bill to the President for certification on August 1 for the first time. The President had sent back the bill to the parliament with an eight-point message noting it required reconsideration from the parliament as per the constitution.

Then, both the Houses of parliament endorsed the bill a second time without making any changes.

The President’s move has been also challenged in court. A total of five petitions have been filed at the Supreme Court against the Head of the State.

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