From Reuters:
“Cambodia passes law barring
dual citizenship for holders of top posts”
Cambodia's parliament on Monday
passed constitutional amendments barring holders of the country's top posts,
including prime minister, from being citizens of other countries. Prime
Minister Hun Sen had on Oct. 6 ordered the justice ministry to make the
changes, which also allow the upper and lower houses speakers, and the head of
the constitutional council, to only hold Cambodian citizenship. read more He
said this was "to show loyalty to the nation and avoid foreign
interference".
Heng Samrin, president of
Cambodian National Assembly, said the amendments aimed to oppose foreign
interference in the country's internal affairs or in the directing of its
national and international policies. "The National Assembly, the Senate,
the Royal Government and the Constitutional Council are the supreme bodies of
the nation enshrined in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia and have a
high responsibility to decide on important matters that are the lifeblood of
the nation to ensure national independence and sovereignty," Heng Samrin
said on his office's Facebook page. The order by Hun Sen, one of the world's
longest-serving leaders after more than three decades in power, to make the
constitutional changes came days after a report in the Guardian newspaper
wrongly named him as one of thousands of non-Europeans given Cypriot passports.
The Guardian report was subsequently corrected to say that his inner circle,
rather than the Prime Minister himself, were discovered to have been among
thousands of non-Europeans who received a Cypriot passport.
A Reuters Special Report in
October 2019 showed family members and key police, business and political
associates of Hun Sen had bought foreign nationality via a citizenship for sale
arrangement in Cyprus. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, a French citizen living in
Paris to avoid a series of convictions in Cambodia, said in an email to Reuters
on Monday that the new rules would deprive potential future leaders of the
chance to serve the country at the highest level. "For historical reasons
our population is spread around the world and many Cambodians with dual
nationality have achieved great success outside the country," Sam Rainsy
said.
^ I can understand any country
restricting the top Government Posts for their own Citizens and not Dual Nationals
and I say that as a Dual-National. ^
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