A National Assembly in Cambodia was set Monday to vote on legal amendments of the country's political law that aimed to give the government and the court broad power to dissolve political parties. CNRP lawmakers decided to boycott the vote.
According to Cambodia Daily, the CPP which is the ruling party immediately moved in favor of the amendment to dissolve political parties after Prime Minister Hun Sen suggested it earlier this month. But the CNRP which is said to be most affected should the law be enforced announced yesterday that they would not participate to vote. PM Hun Sen assured prior to this that the changes would be equally applied to both the CPP and the NCRP.
CNRP almost defeated CPP in the 2013 national elections. It is the closest rival of CPP and it poses also as the only credible rival for the next year's election. CNRP said in a statement the reason why they opted to stay away from the vote on the amendments to dissolve political parties. It said the changes would violate principles of liberal, multiparty democracy, and would cause national disintegration.
Son Chhay, CNRP lawmaker said the amendments of the law was specifically crafted intended to dissolve his party. It is against the law and Cambodian people do not want it. It would be used for the suppression and destruction of the rival parties. He added that CNRP was not boycotting parliament in general but only to this particular vote. "When the parliament is to decide to cause serious concern or harm the national people and democracy, we cannot go along with it, "he said.
Included in the proposed amendments, is the broad power given to Supreme Court to dissolve and bar the entire leadership of any party from political activity if a single top priority official of the party has been convicted criminally. Cambodian's people party Sok Eysan said yesterday that without the NCRP the amendments would have no obstacle to being passed. He said NCRP that does not attend the parliament is like a student that skips classes without studying, as reported by PhnomPenhPost.
Dr. Lee Morgenberser, a researcher on authoritarian regimes in Southeast Asia at Australia's Griffith University said that PM Hun Sen does not look any longer the need to maintain the façade of democracy since China's large investments on Cambodia and Trump's lack of foreign policy influenced much on its dissolution. He said further that the amendments will mark the country's transforming from competitive authoritarian to hegemonic authoritarian.
