Khmer Circle: Surprise, surprise... Having signed off Khmer Koh Tral island to Vietnam in 2005, what could be more problematic, eh? That's royal "discretion" and "wisdom" for you ...
King Norodom Sihamoni watches boat races in Phnom Penh last year, flanked by high-ranking officials. Heng Chivoan
Wed, 25 October 2017
Mech Dara and Andrew Nachemson
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King Norodom Sihamoni signed off on four sets of controversial amendments to Cambodia’s electoral laws today, officially approving provisions that will allow the opposition CNRP’s seats to be redistributed in the event of its dissolution.
Leng Peng Long, a member of the ruling CPP and the National Assembly’s spokesman, said the amendments are now enshrined in law and apply “immediately”.
“The party has not yet been dissolved because the case has not yet gone to trial,” Peng Long said, explaining that if the country’s main opposition party is dissolved, its seats will be automatically redistributed.
The amendments allow for the redistribution of the CNRP’s 55 National Assembly seats among minor parties, while permitting the ruling CPP to occupy all of the opposition’s local-level positions.
Content image - Phnom Penh Post
Yoeurng Sotheara, legal adviser at election monitor Comfrel, has maintained that the amendments violate the Constitution and are antithetical to democracy.
However, he said the king has an obligation to sign any law that passes the appropriate legal channels. The amendments have already cleared the CPP-dominated National Assembly, the Senate and the Constitutional Council.
“The king has to sign the law… He doesn’t have the authority to deny,” he said today.
Son Chhay, CNRP chief whip and acting spokesman, admitted that he was disappointed that the king had signed the amendments.
“We all wish that the king would not do so,” he said via telephone today, adding the amendments are “not appropriate”.
While accepting that the king may have no legal right to reject the amendments, Chhay lamented that he has not met with the beleaguered CNRP.
“We hope to meet with him… sometime soon,” he said.
3 comments:
Let a Vietnamese puppet Hun Sen do whatever he wants because of his Vietnamese masters' provision and protection. Hun Sen will face the economic sanctions and he will face the serious crisis in the near futures. Chinese's investors will suffer more from this Vietnamese puppet Hun Sen's brutal behaviors and his Vietcong masters' orders.
Hun Sen and his Vietcong masters will be blamed for all of these messes.
We should ask China punish Vietnamese puppet Hun Sen then.
No more insulting on the King and his Queen mother? You guys are not a bunch of castrated chickens.
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