Constitutional Council Pivotal in Election Stalemate

Since the July 28 national election, the two parties that took seats in the National Assembly can agree on very little. The ruling CPP claims it won 68 seats to the opposition’s 55, giving it a majority in the 123-seat National Assembly, while the opposition CNRP claims 63 seats to the CPP’s 60, even before taking into account its allegations of fraud, which it wants international help to investigate. … The parties have also differed on how election irregularities should be investigated, and even on readings of the country’s Constitution regarding the formation of the next government. If negotiations falter completely, all these matters could end up be­ing decided upon by the Constitutional Council of Cambodia. Cambodia’s 1993 Constitution called for the establishment of the Constitutional Council, which was finally set up in 1998. The body can be asked to rule on the constitutionality of laws or official decisions, and has the final say on validating election results, as well as acting as the highest court in the land for electoral complaints. While the Constitutional Council should deal with matters legalistically and without bias, the opposition and independent observers consider the body partial toward Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CPP. Each of the council’s nine members serves a nine-year tenure, and appointments to the council are divided among three centers of authority: three appointees of the King, three from the National Assembly and three from the Supreme Council of the Magistracy, the country’s highest judicial body. In practice, however, the CPP’s presence is ubiquitous. …

 Simon Lewis and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/constitutional-council-pivotal-in-election-stalemate-38528/