Kek’s NEC eligibility in doubt

Although Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Friday agreed that no member of an overhauled National Election Committee could have multiple nationalities, it remains unclear whether rights activist and triple national Pung Chhiv Kek is out of the running for the only bipartisan position.

Rainsy said in an email yesterday that despite his party’s acquiescence, he believed “there will be no change” on Kek as both parties’ favoured candidate to take the ninth and final spot on an NEC otherwise made up of political appointees.

The Licadho president will be allowed to join the NEC if she “suspends” her French and Canadian citizenships while sitting on the committee, a vague solution that the opposition has painted as a compromise from Hun Sen.

While neither side has outlined any legal procedure for how a temporary renouncement of citizenship could work, they continued to advance this argument yesterday after a final meeting between working groups drafting a new NEC law.

Read more at: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kek%E2%80%99s-nec-eligibility-doubt