Cambodian election law to be passed next week

Cambodian election law to be passed next week

PHNOM PENH (Agencies): Cambodia's parliament will pass a key electoral law early next week in preparation for general elections scheduled for May, the ministry of information said in a release yesterday.

"Cambodia's (draft) election law will be submitted to the National Assembly for debate and approval on Oct. 6," Cambodia's newly appointed First Prime Minister Ung Huot was quoted as saying in the release.

The election law would provide a legal framework for the vote and establish an independent election commission. Cambodia's last election in 1993 was held under UN rules.

Ung Huot discussed the election with Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, who toppled Prince Norodom Ranariddh after two days of fighting in Phnom Penh, has insisted Cambodia will hold a free and fair poll as scheduled in May.

But political analysts in Phnom Penh said preparations for the election, including the passing of necessary laws, the setting up of an election commission and the drawing up of voter lists, must be speeded up for the election to be held on time.

Ranariddh and Hun Sen headed a coalition government set up after UN-run polls in 1993 but their administration was plagued by rows over power-sharing and how to handle the splintering Khmer Rouge guerrilla group.

Hun Sen has said Ranariddh, who was out of the country at the time of his ouster, is free to return to Cambodia -- but that he must face weapons smuggling and other charges filed against him after he was disposed.

Ranariddh, who denies any wrongdoing, said in New York on Tuesday the 1998 elections would not be credible unless he was allowed to take part.

The two rivals had separate meetings with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York on Tuesday but diplomats in Phnom Penh said yesterday it appeared the talks had not led to any breakthroughs on Ranariddh's future role in politics.

Downer said Australia would soon send a team to Cambodia to explore ways to offer technical help for the Cambodian election, the information ministry release said.

Meanwhile, King Norodom Sihanouk warned Cambodia's leaders that famine and a growing gap between rich and poor will spark a peasant revolt unless steps are taken to alleviate poverty.

"Our country, without our politicians knowing it, is moving toward a peasant revolution (as soon as) proletarian revolutionary leaders show themselves," the king said in an interview in the monthly royal bulletin, seen yesterday.

Cambodia, already one of the world's poorest countries because of 25 years of civil war, is suffering even more severe economic hardship as a result of July's violent coup launched by Second Prime Minister Hun Sen.