Single swearing in ceremony to be held

Cambodge Soir

13-09-2008

The Constitutional Council has rejected the joint applications sent to the King by the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and the Human Rights Party (HRP). The applications requested that the two opposition party MPs could swear in at a different time to the Cambodian People’s Party lawmakers, following alleged "election rigging”.

The Constitutional Council based its notification on two arguments, legal and customary. Article 7 from the Constitution provides that “The King shall be inviolable.” and therefore cannot be ordered to respond. Also that “the King of Cambodia shall be a symbol of the unity and eternity of the nation." (article 8), and “the King shall assume the august role of arbitrator to ensure the faithful execution of public powers”(article 9).

The Council recalls that “in the past, the King Father Norodom Sihanouk allowed National Assembly members to swear in together, not separately”.

Indirectly the King ended any suspense. Politics is left to politicians, as provided by Article 7 of the Constitution: “The King of Cambodia shall reign but not govern”. The King sent the matter to the Constitutional Council for advice. Then the King conveyed the Constitutional Council’s conclusions to the HRP and SRP heads.

Interviewed by Cambodge Soir Hebdo Sonn Chhay, a MP and SRP spokesman pretended to be surprised: “I cannot see an answer coming from the King, we have to swear in separately and will not attend the first session of the National Assembly”, he declared.

As for Yem Ponhearith, General Secretary of the HRP, his statement is confusing: “We will not attend the first session, but we want to swear in and we follow the king".

And the King seems to follow the Constitutional Council’s notification which advocates a single swearing in ceremony.