King urges lopsided Senate to protect justice, rights

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni yesterday urged senators to protect justice and human rights as the upper house of the country’s parliament met for the first time since the ruling party swept a controversial election held in February.

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won every seat up for grabs in the Feb 25 election after many opposition supporters were stripped of the right to vote late last year.

Rights groups and opposition leaders called the vote a “sham” and “undemocratic”, while Western governments have suspended aid and some imposed sanctions, including travel curbs, on senior CPP members.

“The Senate has to guarantee to protect justice and human rights in order to improve happiness in our society,” the King said in a speech yesterday congratulating the newly elected lawmakers.

He reminded them of the Senate’s duty to “protect basic constitutional rights and democracy, as well as the freedom and interests of all people”.

CPP spokesman, Sok Eysan, did not reply to requests for comment.

The CPP won 58 of the 62 Senate seats, which include two members each appointed by the King and the National Assembly.

The four appointees are members of the royalist Funcinpec party of Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who was once Hun Sen’s main rival but is now aligned with him.

Last November, the Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition, Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) at the government’s request.

After the CNRP’s dissolution, more than 5,000 opposition councillors and lawmakers were stripped of their voting rights, the CNRP said, which paved the way for the CPP’s landslide victory.

“The formation of this ‘new Senate’ is just a part of the destruction of democracy in Cambodia, with the country painfully returning to a one-party system,” Sam Rainsy, the former CNRP opposition leader who now lives in exile in France after he stepped down, said in a email message.