Cambodia's ruling party insists coalition government to be formed

PHNOM PENH, Aug 12 (AFP) - The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) Tuesday insisted a coalition government will be formed despite rival political outfits plotting an international campaign to oust Prime Minister Hun Sen from the top job.

CPP spokesman Khieu Kanharith said the government was on target to fulfill a promise made by Hun Sen that a government would be in place 60 days after the July 27 elections which delivered the CPP an unprecedented victory.

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He said the CPP had held informal talks with the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and the royalist FUNCINPEC party but no decision had been made on which party it would attempt to negotiate a coalition government with.

"It will not take a long time," he told reporters. "Once the National Assembly meets the government will be formed."

The 60-day promise means a government will be formed by September 25, once a coalition deal is struck which will enable King Norodom Sihanouk to convene the National Assembly.

The CPP expects to win 73 seats in the 123-seat assembly when allocations are finalised. FUNCINPEC and the SRP are trailing a distant second and third and expect to split the remaining 50 seats evenly between them.

However the CPP is still short of the two-thirds majority required to rule in its own right and must form a coalition with one of the other parties, but the SRP and FUNCINPEC are baulking at that prospect.

The pair have formed the Alliance of Democrats aimed at pushing Hun Sen out, and want a tripartite government with a neutral prime minister and deputies from each of the three main political parties.

Khieu Kanharith also said Cambodia's revered monarch was correct in backing Hun Sen as leader of the next government and urged a coalition of the premier's choice, including his pick for deputy.

"In general the king's analysis is right, they cannot reject it," he said, referring to SRP chief Sam Rainsy and his FUNCINPEC counterpart Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

"There will be no political deadlock ... we will work together, we will not work in the government and then start cursing the government."

Khieu Kanharith, Sam Rainsy and Ranariddh appeared separately earlier Tuesday on the international television network CNN.

Ranariddh declined to comment on the lack of support from his father -- who founded FUNCINPEC -- for ousting Hun Sen and the establishment of a tripartite government which Sihanouk described as "naive".

"We clearly reject the result of the election," he told CNN, adding there was a complete deadlock and the CPP had to deal with the Alliance of Democrats.

"We should form all together, like in 1993, a union government," he said.

A political deadlock following the 1993 poll resulted in an acrimonious co-habitational government with Ranariddh as first prime minister and Hun sen as second prime minister. It ended four years later in a bloody coup with Hun Sen seizing outright power.

"I think that the bottom line, and in order to overcome the present deadlock, we should accept in principle the formation of a union tripartite government," he said.

Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy are planning an international tour taking in Asian countries, the United States and Europe in order to drum-up support for a tripartite government, which has found little enthusiasm at home.

"What I must take into account is the national interest and the national interest wants Cambodia to be united and Cambodia needs regime change," Sam Rainsy told CNN.

He added: "We want Mr. Hun Sen to step down because Mr. Hun Sen has led Cambodia to disaster for more than 20 years."

suy-lh/sb/bjn

Cambodia-vote

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This article is Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse.

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