The Cambodia-Canada Legislative Support Project: Working within the Confines of Political Impasse - Year Two

On July 27, 2003, the National Assembly elections were held in Cambodia. The Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) won 73 out of the 123 seats in the National Assembly, while the royalist FUNCINPEC and opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) took 26 and 24 seats, respectively. Although the CPP took a substantial number of seats in the National Assembly, it fell short of a two-thirds majority needed to create a government on its own. After the election results were delivered, the FUNCINPEC and SRP parties refused to join a coalition and both parties subsequently formed the Alliance of Democrats to oppose the CPP. In the period following the elections, the government ground to a standstill as the CPP unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a coalition government with the two main opposition parties.

At the end of the second full year of Project implementation, a resolution to the impasse had still not been negotiated. As a result of the political deadlock, the CCLSP project had to limit its activities with parliamentarians. Therefore, more efforts were placed on training parliamentary staff and senior management in Parliament.

Lawmaking Component

Although the political situation made it difficult for the project to engage parliamentarians in activities, parliamentarians remained enthusiastic and supportive of the project and continued to report how training, tools and guidelines acquired through project activities in the past were contributing to their work. An increasing number of parliamentarians use the "rule of law guidelines" in plenary sessions and commissions to assist them in their legislative review of bills, and they have commented on its utility to the project staff. Women MPs have used material on gender analysis in other aspects of their work, such as within their party women's associations, and they have distributed gender analysis guidelines to other MPs and Senators to raise awareness of gender issues. Furthermore, through various workshops and assignments designed to help increase the legal analysis and research capacity of staff, the CCLSP team was able to achieve considerable results with the research and legal staff of both the National Assembly and Senate.

Representation Component

Prior to the elections, the project concentrated its work in the representative stream on commission staff and Senators. In March and June 2003, field consultations and roundtables on the Cambodian-Thai Border Crisis and the impact of SARS on the Cambodian economy were conducted. A workshop on the roles and responsibilities of provincial staff of the National Assembly was also carried out in May 2003.

Secretariat Component

The Secretaries-General of the Senate and National Assembly, along with their senior managers, have shown a great deal of commitment to implementing changes to staff hiring policies and job descriptions to reflect a move towards a more politically neutral staff. Staff have also demonstrated a strong commitment in implementing the knowledge and skills gained in their daily work for commissions. The project continues to assist in this area and train managers to implement the policies and procedures underlined in the new official documents of Parliament, particularly the recently passed Legislative Civil Servants Statute. Activities in the past year included administrative skills training (April and August 2003), basic management training (June 2003), a workshop on operational planning (July 2003), and a workshop on human resources management policies and practice (December 2003). Despite the tumultuous political situation, the Project was able to achieve substantive results in the Secretariat stream.