National Assembly to vote on two Senate seats expected to go to Funcinpec

Soth Koemsoeun | Publication date 03 April 2018 | 19:54 ICT

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The National Assembly's Permanent Committee voted on Tuesday to select two candidates to join the Senate as the lower house's appointees. A plenary session will be held on Monday to confirm the selections. National Assembly

The Permanent Committee of the National Assembly has picked two candidates to fill vacant positions in the Senate, with a Funcinpec spokesman saying Tuesday they are expected to go to his party.

Four of the 62 members of the Senate are selected outside of the normal vote, which took place in February, with the King and the assembly selecting two candidates each. In the February elections, which were open only to elected members of government, the long-ruling Cambodian People's Party swept all 58 seats on offer.

National Assembly spokesman Leng Peng Long said that out of 12 candidates, the Permanent Committee had selected two nominees, with the body expected to hold a plenary session next Monday to vote them in as senators.

“We do not reveal the name and background of the candidates, and we wait for the meeting to make the decision on the 9th of April,” he said.

However, Funcinpec spokesman Nheb Bun Chhin said the party had submitted two candidates to the Permanent Committee and that it was likely they would be the final nominees.

“We need to have great hope because 12 candidates filed the applications, but most of them withdrew their applications and there were about three to four candidates left, but they have not met the requirements,” he said.

The ruling party has attempted to maintain the semblance of a multi-party democracy after November's forced dissolution of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was seen as the only legitimate competitor to the CPP in this year's national election. Funcinpec, meanwhile, has been the beneficiary of the CNRP's demise, going from a seemingly marginal relic of a bygone political era to an active player, gaining 41 of the CNRP's redistributed seats in the National Assembly in one fell swoop despite having received virtually no popular support in the 2013 national elections.