Cambodian parliament will consider legislation to allow politicians banned from political activity to have the ban lifted, a measure that long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen's government is touting as a step "to strengthen democracy and political space."
The move, announced late Monday by the assembly's secretariat, ostensibly holds out an olive branch to the 118 top members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party banned from political activity for five years. Their party was dissolved by court order last year in what was seen as a tactic to ensure a victory by Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party in this past July's general election.
Under the proposed legislation, the ban could be lifted by Cambodia's constitutional monarch on application by the prime minister on advice of the interior minister.