Assembly passes budget as CNRP boycotts vote
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party passed the government’s $4.3 billion budget for 2016 unopposed on 30 November as Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers followed through on a pledge to sit out the National Assembly session if concerns for their members’ safety were not addressed.
The CNRP’s 55 parliamentarians boycotted the session amid an increasingly tense political environment that has seen an arrest warrant issued for party president Sam Rainsy, the stripping of deputy leader Kem Sokha’s parliamentary title and the savage beating of two lawmakers outside the assembly after a session in late October.
