Rainsy Says CNRP Could End Assembly Boycott Friday

Sam Rainsy giving a press conference on tentative new political deal at CNRP headquarters this Thursday mid-afternoon, 10 April 2014 (photo: Eng Chhai Eang, CNRP MP-elect)

Rainsy Says CNRP Could End Assembly Boycott Friday

The Cambodia Daily | April 10, 2014

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said that he made “tentative” plans with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday to appear before King Norodom Sihamoni on Friday to sign a deal ending the CNRP’s boycott of its 55 National Assembly seats.

Government and CPP officials said they could not confirm if such a meeting is planned. 

Mr. Rainsy said an extended phone conversation with Mr. Hun Sen in the morning had led to an agreement on the reform of the National Election Committee (NEC). Friday’s meeting before King Sihamoni will go ahead if an agreement on the date for the next national election is struck today, he said.

“We are moving closer,” Mr. Rainsy said by telephone. “One point remains, the date of the new election. We haven’t ironed out all the differences yet.”

“There is a meeting tentatively scheduled for Friday,” he said.

“Hun Sen told me that the King has to receive credentials from some ambassadors [today] and then we move into Khmer New Year, so Friday will be a good day.”

“After the Khmer New Year, we will work together, the two parties at the National Assembly to implement the agreement,” Mr. Rainsy explained.

The opposition leader said it would be “a matter of days or at most a week” after the Khmer Year that the parties will meet in the National Assembly to implement the agreement by jointly amending the Constitution.

Read the complete article at The Cambodia Daily...