A July 29 press statement of the Ministry of Justice.
The Ministry of Justice has invited political parties and non-governmental organisations that have expressed concerns about the tenth amendment to the constitution to meet with ministry officials and become more familiar with the essentials regarding the six amended articles of the constitution and the two amended articles of the Additional Constitutional Law.
In a July 29 press statement, the ministry scheduled the meetings for the afternoons of August 2-4 at 2:30pm and invitations have been extended to the concerned political parties and NGOs.
However, the ministry said they can be flexible with the schedule based on the requests of the political parties or NGOs if for some reason their representatives are unable to attend those sessions. To ensure transparency, the media have also been invited to observe the discussions.
The National Assembly (NA) on July 28 voted in favour of adopting changes to articles 19, 89, 98, 102, 119 and 125 of the constitution, along with revisions to articles 3 and 4 of the Additional Constitutional Law.
The changes to the constitution were met with objections from four political parties: Candlelight (CP), Khmer Will (KWP), Cambodian Reform (CRP) and Grassroots Democratic (GDP). They registered their complaints by submitting a petition to the NA requesting that they vote down the changes.
In addition to the objections by the four political parties a significant number of NGOs, civil society organisations and other groups expressed similar concerns.
They said that the amendment would undermine multi-party democratic principles, reduce the power of the legislature and alter the parliamentary system.
Minister of Justice Koeut Rith held a press conference rebutting those claims on July 14 and then again on July 28 he explained the changes at length in a televised NA session where the amendment was passed.
The minister as well as NA members from the relevant committees have said that the amendment aims at ensuring the regular functioning of national institutions, especially the executive branch, in case of certain unusual circumstances and to make sure that they are able to maintain continuity of government without a deadlock or stalemate bringing things to an impasse with no clear solution.
