Cambodia's King Norodom Si-hanouk has called for a referendum after refusing to sign a controversial bill to allow a government to be formed after a year-long political impasse.
The king, who lives in self-imposed exile in North Korea, said he would allow the acting head of state to sign, but the revered monarch's refusal to attach his own name is likely to jeopardize the new administration's mandate.
Prime Minister Hun Sen and royalist leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who agreed to form their third coalition after a year of tortuous negotiations, are unlikely to agree to the referendum demand.
They struck the coalition deal on June 30 in a move that angered the 81-year-old king -- traditionally a dealmaker during political wrangling -- as his own attempts at negotiation were snubbed following inconclusive elections last July.
"I cannot respond to this great and serious issue that is fracturing our nation. I will ask Chea Sim, acting head of state, to please sign or not sign the additional constitutional law, in accordance with his opinion," Sihanouk said in a message posted on his website.
"The king reigns but does not rule. Therefore, Parliament, which is the representative of the people, should organize a referendum to allow the people to decide this big issue."
Chea Sim, president of Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party, will be asked to sign the bill today, which will allow the Parliament to sit for its first working session in more than a year.
The bill allows Hun Sen and Ranariddh to be jointly elected as premier and national assembly president by a show of hands.
The king relented Saturday on his threat to abdicate over the feud. He first ascended the throne some 65 years ago.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
RSS