Amid CNRP boycott, assembly opens door to dissolving opposition

CPP amends Party Law

IN LESS than an hour, ruling party members of Cambodia’s National Assembly yesterday passed contentious amendments to the Law on Political Parties that could see their chief rivals rapidly dis- solved, a step observers said was the latest in a string of legislative attacks on rights and freedoms in the Kingdom.

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday sat impassive at the plenary session – which was boycotted by the Cambodia National Rescue Party – and remained silent on the widely criticised changes, which would see parties disbanded if their leadership hold criminal convictions, a routine state of affairs for CNRP members given a litany of court cases widely believed politically motivated.

Former opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who quit the CNRP last week in anticipation of yesterday’s vote, took to Twitter proclaiming that the swift passage of the law “marks one of the darkest days for Cambodia since the Paris Peace Agreements of 1991”.

“The [international] com- munity must address the fact that they paid for a democratic system which is now lurching towards a one-party state,” he said.

Reached yesterday in Paris, Rainsy defended his former CONTINUED

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PHA LINA Prime Minister Hun Sen is seen through a door at a National Assembly session yesterday where controversial changes to the Law on Political Parties were approved.