Nepal's parliament passes a bill to declare Nepal a federal republic

Kathmandu, Dec 28 (UNI) Nepal's parliament has endorsed the constitutional amendment bill turning the Himalayan nation into a federal democratic republic, which will be implemented by the first meeting of constituent assembly.

Speaker Subash Nemwang said that out of 273 MPs, who participated in the voting, 270 voted in favour of the constitutional amendment while three voted against it.

All the major political parties were in favour of declaring the Himalayan nation a republic except the royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

The amended constitution states that the Prime Minister will bear all the responsibilities of the head of the state until the constituent assembly (CA) election.

Based on the 23-point agreement signed by the seven parties, the government had presented the bill for parliamentary debate on Monday.

The government has said that the date for the CA election will be announced soon. It is expected that the election be held by mid April.

UNI