Outgoing minister of land management Im Chhun Lim and former Ministry of Tourism secretary of state Sam Prumnea are set to join the Constitutional Council.

At the National Assembly yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that Lim had already been voted in by the Supreme Council of Magistracy. The Council, the King and the National Assembly each choose three of the council’s nine seats.

“I hope there will be no bad comment about him leaving the ministry,” the premier said.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly confirmed Sam Prumnea to the council in a 73-29 vote with five abstentions.

Prumnea was the sole nominee by the National Assembly’s permanent committee.

Constitutional Council spokesman Prom Nhean Vichet told the Post that the council had three seats to fill that will be vacated on June 30; the third remains to be chosen by royal decree.

“The mandates are ending for Ek Sam Ol as the president [of the council] and of my mandate, Prom Nhean Vichet, and that of [Prince] Sisowath Phandaravong,” he said.

According to Vichet, a new council president will be chosen by a simple majority vote by members of the new council.

Members are appointed to one-time-only nine-year terms but can be provisionally appointed for an extra three years under exceptional circumstances such as the death of a member.