The new National Assembly will convene its first working session “soon” to amend the Constitution, allowing the Assembly to simultaneously ratify new government and parliamentary positions, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday.
Hun Sen said he will ask Assembly Dean Chea Soth to call a parliamentary session, but he did not specify a date. “We have spent 10 months [forming a new government]. We cannot delay anymore,” he told reporters at the Council of Ministers.
Though the Assembly has traditionally approved of parliament posts before ratifying new government positions, Hun Sen and Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh agreed last week to hold a “package vote,” in which all positions would be ratified at the same time.
To do so, the Assembly must add an article to the Constitution, which will require approval from the Senate and Constitutional Council, Hun Sen said.
Hun Sen said he and the prince agreed to a package vote because they had discovered a “traitor group” bent on thwarting their plans for a new coalition government and destroying the relationship between CPP and Funcinpec.
“We agreed…after we found out the secret of the traitors,” Hun Sen said, without elaborating.
Funcinpec Secretary-General Prince Norodom Sirivudh declined to comment on Hun Sen’s statements Sunday.
Funcinpec will submit its power-sharing proposal to the CPP today, asking for co-minister positions in the Ministries of Defense and Interior and the Council of Ministers, Prince Sirivudh said. He would not elaborate on the proposal, but said the two sides were “very far” in their talks.
Also Saturday, Hun Sen said the CPP will not send representatives to North Korea for Queen Norodom Monineath’s 68th birthday on June 18 in order to save money.
Instead, he said, government officials will visit the countryside and plant rice in her honor.
Prince Sirivudh and opposition leader Sam Rainsy are expected to visit the King and the Queen next week at their residence in Pyongyang.
