Ruling Cambodian People’s Party member Yin Bunnang will take the seat of recently deceased lawmaker Im Sethy, representing Kampong Cham province, the National Assembly announced yesterday. The assembly also selected a lawmaker to replace Sethy on the justice commission.

National Assembly spokesman Leng Peng Long said Kampong Cham CPP candidate Bunnang was officially sworn into office yesterday after having been approved by the National Election Committee following the death of former CPP Minister of Education Sethy on December 8.

Bunnang could not be reached.

Prime Minister Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who became a lawmaker after the CNRP’s seats were redistributed to the royalist Funcinpec party last month, were absent during the vote.

Ly Chheng, a CPP lawmaker from Phnom Penh, was voted in as a member of the assembly’s commission on legislation and justice. Chheng is the president of Beltei International University, and has regularly issued statements expressing support for the government in its crackdown against the opposition.