National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh on Tuesday said he will “totally” support his younger half-brother, Prince Norodom Sihamoni, to become the next king of Cambodia.
Repeating that he has no interest in succeeding his aging father, King Norodom Sihanouk, Prince Ranariddh said he will back Prince Sihamoni, the 51-year-old son of Queen Norodom Monineath, as heir to the throne.
“I would like to support the candidacy of Samdech Krom Khun Norodom Sihamoni,” Prince Ranariddh told reporters outside the National Assembly.
“People still don’t believe my sincerity. I plan to formally write the King about my refusal” to vie for the throne, he said.
In recent months, the King, 81, has repeatedly threatened to abdicate, pressing the issue of who will become the next monarch.
That decision rests with The Royal Council of the Throne, which is responsible for choosing the next king, but the council has not set a selection procedure.
Prince Ranariddh, who is also president of Funcinpec, added that the CPP and Funcinpec this week agreed to simplify the Council’s selection process.
The two parties have endorsed a formula in which the Council will choose the next king by a simple majority vote, instead of through a consensus, he said.
Under such a formula, subject to ratification by the National Assembly, the approval of five of the Council’s nine members will be sufficient to appoint the new king, he said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is visiting the King in Beijing, told Prince Ranariddh by phone that the King will return to Cambodia after spending more than six months in self-exile and undergoing medical treatment in China, once his Chinese doctors, give their approval, the royalist president said.
In a message posted on his Web site, King Sihanouk wrote that he met with Hun Sen on Monday, but did not elaborate on their discussions. On Thursday, he will meet with Prince Ranariddh, who travels to Beijing today, and then will meet both leaders Friday, he wrote.
