PHNOM PENH, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's National Assembly will hold its plenary session on Thursday (Dec. 13) to amend a law to clear the way for banned opposition politicians to re-enter politics, Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said Wednesday.
A total of 118 former Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) senior members have been barred from joining politics for five years since Nov. 2017 after the CNRP was dissolved by the Supreme Court following the arrest of party leader Kem Sokha in "treason" charges.
Hun Sen said the forthcoming amendment to the Law on Political Parties will allow the nation's King Norodom Sihamoni to pardon banned politicians through a request made by the prime minister.
"When the law comes into force, in my status as the prime minister, I'm ready to accept a request from each banned politician through the minister of interior," he said in a speech during a visit to nearly 20,000 garment factory workers in western Kampong Speu province.
However, the prime minister said some banned politicians, who have opposed the Supreme Court's decision, are unlikely to have their political rights restored.
Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won all 125 National Assembly seats in a general election on July 29, as the court-dissolved CNRP was banned from joining the poll.
