PM’s legal reasoning questioned

Two days after Prime Minister Hun Sen warned that an opposition boycott of Parliament would result in his Cambodian People’s Party gobbling up all 123 seats in the National Assembly, analysts said yesterday that the CPP lacked the legal grounds and the political legitimacy to rule as a one-party government. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party also dismissed the prime minister’s claims, saying any attempt at seizing the opposition’s seats – a figure the government puts at 55 – would be “illegal”. In a speech in Kandal province on Friday, Hun Sen said “the numbers don’t matter” in regard to the CPP needing a quorum to govern. He added that the ruling party would form a one-party government – boosted by the opposition’s seats – if CNRP legislators declined the King’s invitation to join the opening of Parliament, something that must happen within 60 days of the election. “The validity of immunity will only occur at the time of swearing in. If you don’t participate . . . you will be going against the King,” Hun Sen said.  The premier added that the redistribution of the CNRP’s seats to the CPP, the only other party represented in the assembly, would be carried out by the National Election Committee in accordance with the law. But Sok Sam Oeun, Cambodia Defenders Project executive director, said yesterday that the opposition can only lose its seats if it explicitly abandons them or commits wrongdoing to the extent that the NEC withdraws the candidacy of the party. “[Boycotting parliament] does not mean abandoning their seats,” he said. “If they declare, ‘I do not want these seats anymore,’ [then] that’s abandoning their seats.” … After the prime minister’s comments on Friday, Sam Oeun stated that a quorum of 120 out of 123 lawmakers was needed to launch a new National Assembly. A 2006 amendment to the constitution, he continued, allowed for a new government with 63 lawmakers present – something Hun Sen had referred to – but it had to begin with 120 or more approving the start of a new parliament. … The opposition has claimed victory itself and called for a joint investigation into election irregularities. As discussions about such an investigation continued yesterday, CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said nothing in the law stated that the opposition’s seats could be seized and given straight to its opponent. “Unless we abandon the seats, no one can take them from us,” he said. “If someone takes our seats away, that’s illegal.” Illegal or not, analysts have noted that the election law and the constitution have been blatantly ignored, slightly breached and even altered before. …

 The Phnom Penh Post
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm%E2%80%99s-legal-reasoning-questioned