Assembly Group Endorses Change to Quorum

A special National Assembly task force endorsed a proposal this week for a new Constitutional amendment to reduce the number of parliamentarians required in at­tendance to hold a regular As­sem­bly session, officials said Tues­day.

The amendment, which still re­quires the approval of the As­sem­bly, will lower the Assem­bly’s quorum to 74, or six-tenths of the 123 parliamentarians, from its cur­rent 87, or seven-tenths of all lawmakers, according to Fun­cinpec law­ma­ker Monh Saphann, chairman of the Assembly’s Inter­ior and De­fense Commission.

Monh Saphann said that a se­ven-member task force delegated last week by the Assembly’s Per­ma­nent Committee agreed to re­duce the quorum during a meeting Monday. Such a measure will en­sure the Assembly has quorum for every scheduled session, he said.

“We changed the number of quorum from too high to a fairly low level because we want to keep the National Assembly functioning without any hindrance,” Monh Sa­phann said.

The current quorum has de­layed several scheduled sessions over the past month because of ab­sent Funcinpec and CPP lawmakers and a boycott by the Sam Rain­sy Party’s 24 parliamentarians over the stripping of three opposition lawmakers’ immunity in Feb­ruary.

While the introduction of any fu­ture laws requires only a simple ma­jority vote—or a vote of 50 percent plus one—matters dealing with Constitutional amendments, de­clarations of war or the appointment of Cabinet members will still re­quire a two-thirds majority vote, Monh Saphann said.

Chan Ven, the Assembly’s de­pu­ty secretary-general, said the next Assembly session is scheduled for April 25. Lawmakers will be expected to approve the Con­stitutional amendment then.

Opposition party members on Tuesday issued a statement criticizing the proposed quorum change, saying their input on the matter was “blatantly ignored.”

The statement also questioned why such a change was necessary, considering the CPP and Fun­­­cinpec lawmakers should alone be able to meet the current quorum, despite the Sam Rainsy Party’s boycott.

Opposition lawmaker Son Chhay worried that the ruling parties are changing the Constitu­tion too liberally.

“If we make arbitrary amendments, it is like the Constitution is corrupted,” he said Tuesday.

 

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