Hun Sen Warns CNRP Will Lose Seats if Assembly Boycotted
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday warned that he will give the CNRP parliamentary seats away if they refuse to take their seats at the National Assembly, German Ambassador Wolfgang Moser said. Ambassador Moser said Mr. Hun Sen asked him to pass that message along to the CNRP during a private meeting at the prime minister’s office Thursday morning. Mr. Moser said the prime minister raised the prospect of redistributing the CNRP’s seats to other minor political parties, none of which won any National Assembly positions in Sunday’s election, only as a last resort if the opposition attempts to boycott Assembly meetings. Political commentators have noted that the CNRP’s bloc of some 55 parliamentary seats could prevent the CPP, with 68 seats, from reaching the necessary quorum required by law to host the first, government-forming National Assembly meeting once official election results are known. “He put forward two scenarios,” Mr. Moser said of his meeting with the prime minister. “First, he offered closer cooperation than was in the [previous] National Assembly…. He said he has offered incorporation, but he is ruling out a coalition” with the CNRP. … CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann called Mr. Hun Sen’s warning to give away their seats unlawful and “out of date.” “I ask him to try it,” Mr. Sovann said. “I want him to try and you can ask 3 million voters what will happen if he tries to give away those seats they gave to the CNRP. Will the voters agree, and will the millions of youth agree?” He also rejected Mr. Hun Sen’s claim that the CPP could form the next government without the opposition taking its seats and said at least 120 elected lawmakers would have to show up to the Assembly’s first meeting to make it valid. …
