Archives

PHNOM PENH, Monday (Reuters)

Vote counting begins in Cambodia on Monday with Khmer Rouge fighter-turned-prime minister Hun Sen expected to win a general election marred by a grenade attack and cries of vote fraud. Hun Sen appealed for calm on nationwide television after polls closed on Sunday in the country's third election since a U.N.-brokered peace deal marked the beginning of the end of decades of civil war."

I would urge all political parties to be brave and accept the decisions and judgments of the Cambodian people through the results of these elections," said a statement from Hun Sen's office read out on television.

"Avoid any conflicts and incitements which lead our society into instability and downgrade the prosperity of the nation".

Voter turnout was high and first results are expected by midday on Monday. Final figures are not due until August 8 - depending on the progress of ballot boxes delivered by elephants from far-flung jungle outposts.

Hun Sen and his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) look set to win another five years in power, with support coming from many voters who revere him for bringing stability and overseeing the final Khmer Rouge surrender in 1998.

But critics say Hun Sen's party resorted to vote buying and intimidation in a bid to win the two-thirds majority needed to take outright total control of the 123-seat National Assembly. "We cannot definitely qualify this election as completely free and fair," Prince Norodom Ranariddh, FUNCINPEC leader and son of the ageing King Sihanouk, told reporters on Sunday.

www.crescat.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager