Cambodia considers more seats for National Assembly

Cambodia has organized a six- member committee to study the possibility of raising the number of seats of the National Assembly, an official said on Wednesday.

"So far we have met only for one time to discuss the matter and we have not got the result yet," said Ek Sam Ol, chairman of the Legislation and Justice Committee of the assembly.

The result will be known in March, he said, adding that he had no comments over whether the assembly should be enlarged or not.

King Norodom Sihanouk signed a royal decree on January 26 to create the new committee to conduct such study and research in preparation for the general election in 2008, he said.

The committee includes one member from each major party in the assembly, two members from the Ministry of Interior, and one from the Statistics Department of the Ministry of Planning, said Ol, member of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

Meanwhile, Nov Sowathearo, spokesman of the co-ruling Funcinpec Party, can not be reached for comment.

In addition, Sam Rainsy, president of Sam Rainsy Party, said recently that Cambodia should increase the number of seats of the top legislative body by 10 because the kingdom's population has risen to about 14 million.

Currently, the National Assembly has 123 seats for lawmakers. Among them, 73 are from CPP, 26 from Funcinpec, and 24 from the Sam Rainsy Party.

Source: Xinhua