Forty-six senators from the ruling CPP on Monday unanimously approved the 2016 national budget and the telecommunications law in the absence of 10 boycotting senators from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), according to a press release.
The laws were unanimously passed by 66 lawmakers in a CPP-only sitting of the National Assembly on November 30, with the opposition CNRP’s 55 lawmakers boycotting the session in protest of recent physical and political attacks on the party.
The Senate press release said that the 46 CPP members present at Monday’s sitting approved the laws.
SRP Senator Chep Kim Eng said the opposition boycotted the vote in line with the boycott of the National Assembly by the CNRP.
“The approval at the National Assembly was done by one party’s lawmakers while the CNRP boycotted the session, so we think that these laws, which were approved by the lawmakers of one political party, don’t reflect the principles of democracy,” he said.
“So we boycotted the session today.”
