Cambodia opposition backtracks from shadow cabinet idea

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

Cambodia’s opposition party backtracked Thursday on claims they were to set up a shadow cabinet, after a government spokesman warned that such action was illegal. Shadow cabinets exist in the British and Australian parliamentary systems, but speaking to Anadolu Agency on Thursday, Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) spokesman Yim Sovann said he had needed to clarify that there had never been an intention to establish one here.

“This morning, I made a clarification that the 10 committees belong to the steering committee of the party,” he said. “These committees have been established to advise ideas to the committees in the National Assembly that are controlled by the CNRP. There was no plan to set up a shadow cabinet.”

He claimed that unlike Australia and the United Kingdom, Cambodia’s constitution and the assembly’s internal regulations prohibit such a body from being set up. Earlier on Thursday, The Cambodia Daily quoted National Assembly spokesman Leng Peng Long as saying that in the absence of any legal provisions to set up shadow cabinets, “the National Assembly will not recognize what they are doing, and there will be action from the government.”

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