Assembly Threatens to Cut Salaries of CNRP Lawmakers

 Cambodia Daily | 28 June 2016

The National Assembly’s secr­etariat-general and finance commission are considering cutting the salaries of the CNRP’s 55 lawmakers over their ongoing boycott of parliament for immunity violations, officials said on Monday.

Since police attempted to arrest deputy opposition leader Kem So­kha last month, the CNRP has been boycotting the Assembly, noting that two of its lawma­kers—Um Sam An and Hong Sok Hour—are already in jail despite their immunity from arrest.

CNRP lawmakers leave the party’s headquarters in a National Assembly-issued SUV on their way to deliver a petition to the Royal Palace on May 30. (Siv Channa/The Cambodia Daily)

After a meeting on Monday morning, the Assembly’s permanent standing committee decided to look into whether opposition lawmakers should be paid if they fail to show up for work, according to a statement, which cited “a reaction from Cambodian society,” but did not elaborate.

Leng Peng Long, the spokes­man for the Assembly’s secreta­riat-general, said he and the CPP-headed banking and finance commission would ask the CNRP’s lawmakers why their salaries should not be cut and their government-issued vehicles seized while they are absent.

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