A defect in Cambodia’s election law?

By Phy • July 14th, 2008

Article 120 (amended) of the Law on the Election of the Members of the National Assembly states in part that members of the National Assembly shall lose their membership if they lose their membership from their political party. Two addenda has been made since the adoption of the law in Dec 1997: the first in Apr 1998 and the second in May 1998. Then it has been amended three times:Sept 2002, Jun 2006 and Jan 2007. Interestingly, this provision has never changed. Though the third amendment changed Article 120, the text regarding the absolute connection between membership with the National Assembly and that with the political party remained untouched.

Want it or not, parliamentarians have to stay loyal to their party if they want to keep their position in the National Assembly; this can be interpreted to mean that Cambodian parliamentarians have to put the interest of their parties before that of the people who vote for them in the general elections. Ban Sophal, former Funcinpec member who is now the president of Just Society Party, argued, in his interview with RFA in Khmer on Jul 13, 2008 about his party’s policies and how he can achieve them, that this provision makes members of the National Assembly afriad of their party leaders and therefore that it is a big hurdle to democracy where citizens are the main holders of power who express it through those they vote for: the parlimentarian.

Well, if you want to grab a copy of the Law on the Election of the Members of the National Assembly (amended Jan 2007), here it is:

Law on the Election of Members of the National Assembly (Amended January 5, 2007) (English) (709.3 KiB, 21 hits)

I don’t know if this is the case in democratic countries like the US, Japan and especially France which Cambodian legal system has received lots of influence from. So… do tell me if any idea, will you?