Ninety-two lawmakers have called for an amendment to the Law on Municipal, Provincial, Town, District and Khan Council Elections in a drive to further “unify the nation” and improve the effectiveness of sub-national governance, a high-ranking government official said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Hun Sen made the announcement on Wednesday during a meeting in Kandal province with 15,600 factory workers from 22 factories from Kampong Speu and Kandal provinces.

“I discussed with [Sar Kheng] on Tuesday about increasing the number of seats at the municipal, provincial, town and district levels. Such councils have a lot of tasks to perform."

“We are now working on an amendment to the Law on Municipal, Provincial, Town, District and Khan Council Elections, and we have issued a sub-decree to increase the number of seats at the [local] levels [to improve their] administration,” Hun Sen said.

He said the National Assembly is reviewing the proposed amendment in a bid to improve the effectiveness of local level governance.

Chheang Vun, the chairman of the National Assembly’s Commission on Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Information and Media, told The Post that the proposed law change was initiated by 92 members of the National Assembly.

“First, [the amendment] aims to unify the nation. Second, we can see that municipal, provincial, town, district and khan councils are limited and have many tasks, so we want to add more seats in order to help local officials and the people with sub-national development,” he said.

He said the National Assembly’s Permanent Committee has forwarded the proposed amendment to the Legalisation Committee to review and study. After that, it will be returned to the Permanent Committee for finalisation.

Prime Minister Hun Sen released a letter on October 30 setting May 26 as the date of the next district, provincial and municipal council elections.