The Constitutional Committee (CC), considered the most important among the eleven thematic committees of the Constituent Assembly (CA), has finalised some key provisions to be incorporated in the new constitution through voting, Friday. The committee voted on 98 provisions in the new constitution during a meeting that ran more than seven hours yesterday. It had decided to go for voting on all provisions after the political parties failed to forge consensus on some key provisions including name of the new constitution, wordings in the preamble and whether or not to change the national flag and the emblems. Most of the provisions put forward by the Unified CPN (Maoist) including the name, changing the national flag and using the word ‘people’s war’ in the preamble of the constitution have been voted out by the committee. The committee voted for the name "The Constitution of Nepal - 2067" proposed by Nepali Congress and CPN (UML) for the new constitution against "The Constitution of the People's Federal Republic Nepal - 2067" proposed by the Maoists. The selected name received 31 votes for and 22 votes against it. NC, UML, Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party (TMLP), Madhesi Janadhikar Forum - Loktantrik (MJF-L) CA members voted for it, while the Maoist CA members votes against it. Although, eight other names were proposed for the new constitution, they received negligible votes. Likewise, the Maoist proposal to include the word "people´s war" in the preamble of the new constitution was voted out as it could not receive majority. But the proposal to include "Madhes movement" in the preamble received a majority.Another Maoist proposal to change the national flag was also rejected as it received only 27 votes. A proposal to change only the colour of the national flag keeping the emblems same put forward by Madhes-based political parties also got defeated as it could not garner a majority. The committee has decided, no national emblems will be mentioned in the new constitution. The present constitution has mentioned cow as the national animal, lopophorus as the national bird and rhododendron as the national flower.The proposal to keep press freedom and pluralism as unchangeable provisions in the new constitution received majority, while the proposals to keep federalism, preference for indigenous communities, secularism and inclusiveness as unchangeable provisions received minority.The provision to appoint ambassadors and special envoys of the country on the basis of the principle of proportional inclusiveness got a majority with 32 votes. The committee will now prepare a report with preliminary draft and concept for the new constitution and submit it to the CA, which will have a final say on the provisions. 58 members of the 64-member committee had participated in the voting. Heads of three largest political parties Pushpa Kamal Dahal of UCPN (Maoist), Girija Prasad Koirala of NC and Jhala Nath Khanal of CPN (UML) abstained from voting as per an agreement forged at the beginning of the meeting. Likewise, committee member Suprabha Ghimire of NC is abroad, Ek Nath Dhakal did not vote as his ballot was already used in another thematic committee and the committee chairman did not vote. nepalnews.com