NEPAL’S parliament today failed to pass a controversial amendment to the constitution after it was blocked by the main opposition party, amid deep political divisions ahead of key polls later this year.

The government failed to get the two-thirds majority to pass the bill that has been the centre of contentious political debate and party horse-trading for nearly two years.

“The proposal to endorse the constitution amendment bill has been rejected by the house,” House Speaker Onsari Gharti told parliament after the vote, to cheers from the opposition benches. 

The constitution was passed in 2015 nearly a decade after the end of the brutal Maoist insurgency, cementing the impoverished Himalayan nation’s transformation from a Hindu monarchy to a democratic federal republic.

But it sparked deadly protests by ethnic minority groups from the southern lowlands that border India, who say the charter leaves them politically marginalised.

The Madhesi ethnic minority, who share close cultural links to India, have been calling for an amendment that would redraw federal boundaries to give them greater representation in parliament.

They have also demanded Hindi be recognised as a national language and changes to the citizenship laws which are seen as unfairly penalising dual-national families, a particular issue in the lowlands where there are many cross-border marriages.

Since the constitution was passed nearly two years ago, two subsequent governments have sought to temper the simmering Madhesi protest movement by promising to push through an amendment bill.

The nationalistic opposition has repeatedly prevented the government from bringing the bill to a parliamentary vote, while stoking anti-India sentiment.

In the process, the text of the amendment has been repeatedly watered down in an attempt by the government to gain enough support to pass the bill. – AFP, August 21, 2017.