Today the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Cambodia chose Foreign Minister, Ung Huot as First Prime Minister by a vote of 86 of the Assembly's 120 members after officially stripping Prince Ranariddh of his parliamentary immunity from criminal prosecution by a vote of 98 to 1 making it possible to prosecute him in a court of law for collaboration with the outlawed, Pol Pot, faction of the Khmer Rouge and smuggling weapons into Cambodia, according to an announcement by Var Huoth, Cambodia's Ambassador to the United States.
99 of the 120 member National Assembly were present for these historic votes which restored Cambodia's democratically elected coalition government by replacing former First Prime Minister, Prince Ranariddh, with Minister of Foreign Affairs Ung Huot. Both men are members of the FUNCINPEC party that won the highest number of seats in the National Assembly in the 1993 election.
Cambodia is a Constitutional Monarchy that elects parties; not personalities to office. The party that wins the most seats in National Assembly chooses one of its members to become First Prime Minister. As with most parliamentary systems, the appointing party can also choose to remove an office holder who has lost support of the party's leadership.
20 members of the National Assembly boycotted the session in hopes of restoring Prince Ranariddh to power on procedural grounds. One member from the Cambodian People's party was also absent.
To insure a fair vote, the Assembly voted by secret ballot and gave Ung Huot better than the 80 votes he needed to win the position of First Prime Minister. Ung Huot received 86 votes in favor of his election with four opposed to him, 6 members abstaining from the vote and 3 members submitting void ballots. A majority of the 58 FUNCINPEC members of the National Assembly voted to elect Ung Huot.
In late July, the Steering Committee of the FUNCINPEC party met and selected Ung Huot, a former ally of Prince Ranariddh and the man he chose to be Cambodia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, to replace Prince Ranariddh as First Prime Minister. The FUNCINPEC forwarded Ung Huot's name to the National Assembly and requested the Assembly to elect the party's selection. The affirmative votes of 67 percent of the 120 members of the National Assembly are required to ratify a party's choice for high political office. Today's vote affirmed FUNCINPEC's choice and restored Cambodia's democratically elected government.
The National Assembly balloting to strip Prince Ranariddh of his immunity and essentially remove him from the office of First Prime Minister was even more lopsided than Ung Huot's election. 98 of the 99 National Assembly members who were present voted to strip Ranariddh of his immunity and office, said Ambassador Var Huoth.
In the 1993 election, the Royalist, FUNCINPEC party won 7 more seats in the National Assembly than the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) lead by Second Prime Minister Hun Sen. The FUNCINPEC then selected Prince Ranariddh as First Prime Minister and CPP selected Hun Sen as Second Prime Minister. The National Assembly ratified both appointments.
Acting on clear and convincing evidence that Prince Ranariddh and a small faction of the FUNCINPEC collaborated with the outlawed, Pol Pot, faction of the Khmer Rouge to take control of Cambodia, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces disarmed and dispersed the Khmer Rouge and Prince Ranariddh's private army in the Phnom Penh area on July 5th and 6th of this year. At that time Prince Ranariddh left the country before he could be formally charged with smuggling weapons into Cambodia and collaborating with the outlawed Khmer Rouge.
"In order to obtain such a large favorable vote for Ung Huot in the National Assembly, a majority of the FUNCINPEC Assembly members had to support Prince Ranariddh's replacement," said Ambassador Var Huoth.
The Ambassador continued, " with more than two-third majority of Members of the National Assembly voting to ratify the FUNCINPEC choice for First Prime Minister, it is clear that democracy is alive and well in Cambodia. The use of a secret ballot assured Assembly members that they could vote their consciences.
"Second Prime Minister Hun Sen promised the world community that he would protect and continue Cambodia's democracy. The election of Ung Huot to the office of First Prime Minister by the FUNCINPEC party through a democratic process demonstrates that he delivered on that promise and by doing so continued the coalition government that was elected in 1993," said Ambassador Huoth.
Ambassador Var Huoth concluded, "The election of H. E. Ung Huot will bring about spirited cooperation between the FUNCINPEC and CPP parties and thereby promote national unity, political stability and economic development."