Cambodia's efforts to choose a successor to King Norodom Sihanouk after his surprise abdication cleared a last legal hurdle on Monday when the country's top constitutional body ruled the process valid.
The Senate passed a law enabling a nine-member Royal Throne Council to choose a successor, expected to be Sihanouk's Prague- educated dance teacher son, Norodom Sihamoni, following the National Assembly's unanimous approval of it on Friday.
The Constitutional Council, comprising nine legal experts, then ruled after a three-hour meeting that the law did not breach the constitution, which states that the monarch rules for life.
The law hastily passed by the two houses of parliament to put the constitutional provision for choosing a successor into action allows for the monarch to retire.
State television said the legislation was signed into law by acting head of state Chea Sim on Monday evening. Officials said the Royal Throne Council would meet on Thursday to select the new monarch, a week after Sihanouk's shock declaration.
Legal experts said the proper procedure would have been to amend the constitution, which states that the council must choose a successor within 7 days of the monarch's death, then re-enact the enabling legislation.
But the government appeared to regard Sihanouk's shock declaration last Thursday as triggering the 7-day requirement and is eager to ignore such details.
Experts had said the Constitutional Council was dominated by the party of Prime Minister Hun Sen and was unlikely to derail the process of finding a new monarch for a nation still mired in poverty three decades after the "Killing Field" years.
Hun Sen, suspected by some royalists of wanting to do away with the throne, appeared keen to put a new monarch on it.
"If we fail to choose a new king by October 14 it will be a bad situation for Cambodia," he told reporters after returning from an Asia-Europe summit in Hanoi on Sunday.
"If we delay this situation beyond seven days, some people will argue against the choice of a new king because it will be a question of legality," he added.
SUCCESSOR ON THURSDAY: Sihanouk, who turns 82 on October 31 and said he was too old, sick and tired to carry on, has played a key role in modern Cambodian history. He has abdicated once before, in 1955, in order to play a political role.
Reassuming the monarchy in 1993 after UN-run general elections, he became angered and frustrated by chaotic domestic politics and threatened abdication many times as Cambodia struggled to escape the legacy of the brutal 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime.
This time, everyone appeared to take him seriously.
Norodom Ranariddh, Sihanouk's son and head of the National Assembly, rushed to Beijing where his father has been receiving medical treatment for months, in hopes of changing his mind.
But he said his father remained adamant and called his journey a "mission impossible".
Hun Sen also seemed in a hurry to get the succession organised.
"Today, we still can control the situation," he said. "But what we are worried about is after October 14. If the new king is not chosen, that will make Cambodia a republic. It means we have a throne without a king."
Hun Sen, a member of the Royal Throne Council, joined Sihanouk in backing Sihamoni, 51 and until recently Cambodia's ambassador to UNESCO in Paris, as successor.
"Sihamoni is a neutral person and does not get involved with politics and is not partisan. This is a very appropriate for our nation today," Sihanouk said in a statement.
The Royal Throne Council comprises the prime minister, the president and two vice-presidents of the National Assembly, the president and two vice presidents of the Senate and two top Buddhist monks.
It can choose a new king by a simple majority.
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