1993 Cambodian general election

Last updated

1993 Cambodian general election
Flag of Cambodia under UNTAC.svg
←  1981 23 and 28 May 1993 1998  →
All 120 seats in the Constituent Assembly
61 seats needed for a majority
Registered4,764,618
Turnout89.56%
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Ranariddh 1990s.jpg Hun Sen (2007).jpg 3x4.svg
Leader Norodom Ranariddh Hun Sen Son Sann
Party FUNCINPEC CPP BLDP
Seats won585110
Popular vote1,824,1881,533,471152,764
Percentage45.47%38.23%3.81%
1993 Cambodian general election - Results by constituency.svg
Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election

Hun Sen
CPP

Elected Prime Minister

Norodom Ranariddh (first PM)
Hun Sen (second PM)

Ballot paper Cambodia 1993 parliament election ballot paper.jpg
Ballot paper

General elections were held in Cambodia between 23 and 28 May 1993. The result was a hung parliament with the FUNCINPEC Party being the largest party with 58 seats. Voter turnout was 89.56%. [1] The elections were conducted by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), which also maintained peacekeeping troops in Cambodia throughout the election and the period after it. [2]

Contents

As of 2024, the 1993 general elections were the last to be won by a party other than the Cambodian People's Party, which began to dominate Cambodian politics from 1998.

Background

The State of Cambodia (SOC) and three warring factions of the Cambodian resistance consisting of FUNCINPEC, Khmer Rouge and Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) signed the Paris Peace Accords in October 1991. The accords provides for the establishment of the UNTAC, a United Nations-led interim administration that would supervise the demobilization of troops from the SOC and the three warring factions, and also conduct democratic elections in 1993. [3] The UNTAC was formed at the end of February 1992, and Yasushi Akashi was appointed as head of the UNTAC. [4]

In August 1992, the UNTAC administration promulgated the election law, [5] and conducted the provisional registration of political parties. Political parties that were registered were allowed to open party offices the following month. [6] The following year in January 1993, registration of electorate was carried out, and UNTAC identity cards were issued. [7] The UNTAC conducted a civic education campaign in February 1993, [8] and two months later the UNTAC allowed political parties to hold public meetings and rallies to campaign for votes. [9]

Pre-election challenges

Demobilisation

When UN peacekeepers were sent in to commence on demobilisation in June 1992, the Khmer Rouge set up road blocks in territories under their control to prevent peacekeepers from entering. [10] When the incidents were reported to the then-UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, he sent a personal appeal to Khieu Samphan to let peacekeepers conduct demobilisation. The Khmer Rouge leadership responded by demanding that day-to-day administration should be handed over an administrative body headed by Norodom Sihanouk, and also alleged that continued presence of Vietnamese troops in Cambodia did not warrant demobilisation. As the Khmer Rouge insisted on not participating in demobilisation, Sihanouk called on the UNTAC to isolate the Khmer Rouge from participating in any future peace-making initiatives. [11]

The Cambodian People's Armed Forces (CPAF), Armee Nationale Sihanoukiste (ANS, also informally known as the FUNCINPEC army) and Khmer People's National Liberation Front participated in the mobilisation exercises, although young and untrained recruits were sent to participate while non-servicing weapons were presented to the peacekeeping troops. [12] When the Khmer Rouge continued to resist demobilisation efforts, UNTAC decided to suspend the entire mobilisation exercise in September 1992, during which about 50,000 soldiers from the CPAF, ANS and KPNLF have disarmed. [13]

Violent attacks

The Khmer Rouge started to carry out a series of attacks on Vietnamese civilians from April 1992, [14] which they justified by claiming that there were Vietnamese soldiers disguised as civilians. [15] In February 1993 a group carried out an attack at a tourist center in Siem Reap, which killed three Cambodian civilians and injured eight people including a Portuguese tourist. [16] In March 1993, the Khmer Rouge carried out the largest attack on Vietnamese civilians in the floating village of Chong Kneas in Siem Reap Province which claimed the lives of 124 Vietnamese civilians. The Khmer Rouge had provided tacit forewarning prior to the attack, [17] but neither SOC troops not UNTAC peacekeepers were deployed. When the attack was published in the press, it triggered about 20,000 Vietnamese to flee to Vietnam the following month in April 1993. [18]

The CPAF also carried out clandestine attacks on the party offices belonging to FUNCINPEC and BLDP starting in November 1992. The attacks were carried out at night, and soldiers would fire grenades or rockets. The number of incidents were reduced in January 1993, but picked up again in March 1993 until the eve of elections in May 1993. [19] The attacks left about 200 political workers killed or injured by May 1993. [20]

Electoral system

The 120 members of the Constituent Assembly were elected via closed party list proportional representation under the largest remainder method (using the Hare quota) in multi-member constituencies of between one and eighteen seats corresponding to the provinces and the capital, Phnom Penh. The elected members would also be tasked with drafting and approving the new Constitution of the country in the following three months. [21]

Results

The voting process was carried out between 23 and 28 May 1993. [22] Most of the voting stations were based in school buildings and Buddhist pagodas to reduce costs. The election was staffed by some 50,000 Cambodians and 900 international volunteers as well as an additional 1,400 United Nation officers which served as polling station observers. [23] The counting of votes started on 29 May and lasted until 10 June. The results were declared by Akashi, and five days later the UN security council endorsed the election results with Security Council Resolution 840. [24]

Cambodian National Assembly composition, 1993-1998.svg
PartyVotes%Seats
FUNCINPEC 1,824,18845.4758
Cambodian People's Party 1,533,47138.2351
Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party 152,7643.8110
Liberal Democratic Party 62,6981.560
MOULINAKA 55,1071.371
Khmer Neutral Party 48,1131.200
Democratic Party41,7991.040
Free Independent Democracy Party37,4740.930
Free Republican Party31,3480.780
Liberal Reconciliation Party29,7380.740
Cambodge Renaissance Party28,0710.700
Republican Coalition Party27,6800.690
Khmer National Congress Party25,7510.640
Neutral Democratic Party of Cambodia24,3940.610
Khmer Farmer Liberal Democracy20,7760.520
Free Development Republican Party20,4250.510
Rally for National Solidarity14,5690.360
Action for Democracy and Development13,9140.350
Republican Democracy Khmer Party11,5240.290
Nationalist Khmer Party7,8270.200
Total4,011,631100.00120
Valid votes4,011,63194.01
Invalid/blank votes255,5615.99
Total votes4,267,192100.00
Registered voters/turnout4,764,61889.56
Source: Nohlen et al. [25]

Aftermath

On 31 May 1993, the CPP filed a complaint with Akashi over claims of irregularities in the elections. When Akashi dismissed CPP's complaints, Hun Sen and Chea Sim suggested to Sihanouk to assume full executive powers as the Head of State of the country. [1] Sihanouk accepted the initiative, and issued a declaration on 3 June that he would assume the position as the Head of State of Cambodia. The ministries would be divided between FUNCINPEC and CPP on a fifty-fifty basis. [26]

FUNCINPEC president Ranariddh, as well as several countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and China opposed the initiative. The US charged that Sihanouk's initiative would violate the spirit of the election as well as the terms set in the Paris Peace Accords. The following day, Sihanouk abandoned the initiative to assume full executive powers. [27]

One week later on 10 June, Hun Sen announced that seven eastern provinces, all bordering Vietnam, had seceded from Cambodia under the leadership of then-Deputy Prime Minister Norodom Chakrapong and then-Interior Minister Sin Song. Hun Sen avoided supporting the secession attempt publicly, but accused the United Nations of creating electoral fraud to precipitate CPP's defeat in the election. Chakrapong and Sin Song attacked political offices belonging to FUNCINPEC and BLDP in the provinces, and also issued orders for UNTAC officials to leave the provinces under their control. [28]

An emergency National Assembly meeting was initiated on 14 June where Sihanouk was re-instated as the Head of State, with Ranariddh and Hun Sen appointed as co-prime ministers with equal levels of executive powers. [29] When Hun Sen issued a letter to Akashi to declare his support for continued UNTAC's interim administration, Chakrapong and Sin Song dropped the secessionist threats. [30] For the next three months, Sihanouk presided over an interim administration. He tendered his resignation on 21 September, and re-assumed the office of the King of Cambodia two days later on 23 September 1993. [31]

See also

Related Research Articles

The history of Cambodia, a country in mainland Southeast Asia, can be traced back to Indian civilization. Detailed records of a political structure on the territory of what is now Cambodia first appear in Chinese annals in reference to Funan, a polity that encompassed the southernmost part of the Indochinese peninsula during the 1st to 6th centuries. Centered at the lower Mekong, Funan is noted as the oldest regional Hindu culture, which suggests prolonged socio-economic interaction with maritime trading partners of the Indosphere in the west. By the 6th century a civilization, called Chenla or Zhenla in Chinese annals, firmly replaced Funan, as it controlled larger, more undulating areas of Indochina and maintained more than a singular centre of power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norodom Sihanouk</span> King & the 1st Prime Minister of Cambodia

Norodom Sihanouk was a member of the Cambodian royal house who led the country as King and Prime Minister. In Cambodia, he is known as Samdech Euv. During his lifetime, Cambodia was under various regimes, from French colonial rule, a Japanese puppet state (1945), an independent kingdom (1953–1970), a military republic (1970–1975), the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), a Vietnamese-backed communist regime (1979–1989), a transitional communist regime (1989–1993) to eventually another kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern Cambodia</span> History of Cambodia since 1989

After decades of conflict, Cambodia's modern era began in 1993 with the restoration of the monarchy and end of the United Nations Transitional Authority after general elections were held. Since 1993, the Cambodian People's Party have consistently been in government, and consolidated power in a 1997 coup d'état. Hun Sen was prime minister until transfer of power to his son, Hun Manet, in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hun Sen</span> 30th Prime Minister of Cambodia

Samdech Hun Sen is a Cambodian politician, and former army general who currently serves as the president of the Senate. He previously served as the prime minister of Cambodia from 1985 to 1993 and from 1998 to 2023. Hun Sen is the longest-serving head of government in Cambodia's history. He is the president of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), which has governed Cambodia since 1979, and has served as a member of the Senate since 2024. His full honorary title is Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FUNCINPEC</span> Royalist political party in Cambodia

The National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia, commonly referred to as FUNCINPEC, is a royalist political party in Cambodia. Founded in 1981 by Norodom Sihanouk, it began as a resistance movement against the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) government. In 1982, it formed a resistance pact with the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK), together with the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) and the Khmer Rouge. It became a political party in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norodom Ranariddh</span> 31st Prime Minister of Cambodia

Norodom Ranariddh was a Cambodian politician and law academic. He was the second son of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and a half-brother of King Norodom Sihamoni. Ranariddh was the president of FUNCINPEC, a Cambodian royalist party. He was also the first Prime Minister of Cambodia following the restoration of the monarchy, serving between 1993 and 1997, and subsequently as the President of the National Assembly between 1998 and 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chea Sim</span> Cambodian politician (1932–2015)

Chea Sim was a Cambodian politician. He was President of the Cambodian People's Party from 1991 to 2015, President of the National Assembly of Cambodia from 1981 to 1998 and President of the Senate from 1999 to 2015. His official title was Samdech Akka Moha Thamma Pothisal Chea Sim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norodom Chakrapong</span> Cambodian prince (born 1945)

Norodom Chakrapong is a Cambodian politician, businessman and former major-general of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. He is the fourth son of Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and also a half-brother of the current king, Norodom Sihamoni. Chakrapong started his career as a military pilot in 1963. After Sihanouk was overthrown in 1970, Chakrapong spent time under house arrest, then in Beijing as the Head of Protocol of then-Prince Sihanouk, afterwards living overseas before he joined the Funcinpec in 1981 and fought against Vietnamese occupation as a commander of the Armée Nationale Sihanoukiste. In 1991, Chakrapong left Funcinpec to join the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia between 1992 and 1993. When the CPP lost the 1993 general elections, Chakrapong led a secession attempt in 1993. In 1994, he was accused of joining a failed coup attempt which led him to be sent into exile. After Chakrapong was pardoned in 1998, he founded a private airline company, Royal Phnom Penh Airways. The airlines later stopped all operations in early 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambodian–Vietnamese War</span> 1977–1991 conflict

The Cambodian–Vietnamese War was an armed conflict between Democratic Kampuchea, controlled by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The war began with repeated attacks by the Liberation Army of Kampuchea on the southwestern border of Vietnam, particularly the Ba Chúc massacre which resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Vietnamese civilians. On 23 December 1978, 10 out of 19 of the Khmer Rouge's military divisions opened fire along the border with Vietnam with the goal of invading the Vietnamese provinces of Đồng Tháp, An Giang and Kiên Giang. On 25 December 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea, occupying the country in two weeks and removing the government of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from power. In doing so, Vietnam put an ultimate stop to the Cambodian genocide, which had most likely killed between 1.2 million and 2.8 million people — or between 13 and 30 percent of the country’s population. On 7 January 1979, the Vietnamese captured Phnom Penh, which forced Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to retreat back into the jungle near the border with Thailand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khmer People's National Liberation Front</span> Political party

The Khmer People's National Liberation Front was a political front organized in 1979 in opposition to the Vietnamese-installed People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) regime in Cambodia. The 200,000 Vietnamese troops supporting the PRK, as well as Khmer Rouge defectors, had ousted the Democratic Kampuchea regime of Pol Pot, and were initially welcomed by the majority of Cambodians as liberators. Some Khmer, though, recalled the two countries' historical rivalry and feared that the Vietnamese would attempt to subjugate the country, and began to oppose their military presence. Members of the KPNLF supported this view.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sar Kheng</span> Cambodian politician (born 1951)

Sar Kheng is a Cambodian politician. He is the vice president of the ruling Cambodian People's Party and served as Minister of the Interior and deputy prime minister from 1992 to 2023. He also represents the province of Battambang in the Cambodian Parliament. Kheng has been the Minister of the Interior since 1992. Until March 2006, he shared the position with FUNCINPEC party member You Hockry as co-Ministers of the Interior, but then became sole interior minister in a cabinet reshuffle as FUNCINPEC ended its coalition with the CPP. He left office as interior minister in 2023 and was succeeded by his son, Sar Sokha.

The MOULINAKA was a pro-Sihanouk military organization formed in August 1979 by an armed group on the Thai-Cambodian border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia</span> UN peacekeeping mission to implement Cambodian-Vietnamese peace

The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Cambodia in 1992–93 formed following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords. This was the first occasion in which the UN directly assumed responsibility for the administration of an outright independent state, rather than simply monitoring or supervising the area. The UN transitional authority organized and ran elections, had its own radio station and jail, and was responsible for promoting and safeguarding human rights at the national level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vietnamese Cambodians</span> Ethnic Vietnamese people in Cambodia

Vietnamese Cambodians refers to ethnic group of Vietnamese who live in Cambodia or it refers to Vietnamese who are of full or partial Khmer descent. According to Cambodian sources, in 2013, about 15,000 Vietnamese people live in Cambodia. A Vietnamese source stated that 156,000 people live in Cambodia, while the actual number could be somewhere between 400,000 and one million people, according to independent scholars. They mostly reside in southeastern parts of Cambodia bordering Vietnam or on houseboats in the Tonlé Sap lake and Mekong rivers. The first Vietnamese came to settle modern-day Cambodia from the early 19th century during the era of the Nguyễn lords and most of the Vietnamese came to Cambodia during the periods of French colonial administration and the People's Republic of Kampuchea administration. During the Khmer Republic and Khmer Rouge governments in the 1970s under the Pol Pot regime, the Vietnamese among others were targets of mass genocides; thousands of Vietnamese were killed and many more sought refuge in Vietnam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1997 Cambodian coup d'état</span> Self-coup by Hun Sen against co-premier Norodom Ranariddh

The 1997 Cambodian coup d'état took place in Cambodia from July to September 1997. As a result, co-premier Hun Sen ousted the other co-premier Norodom Ranariddh. At least 32 people were killed during the coup.

United Nations Security Council resolution 792, adopted on 30 November 1992, after recalling resolutions 668 (1990), 717 (1991), 718 (1991), 728 (1992), 745 (1992), 766 (1992) and 783 (1992) noting a report by the Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Council concerned itself with preparations for the 1993 elections in Cambodia by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) while condemning the refusal of the Party of Democratic Kampuchea to co-operate.

The Cambodian Constituent Assembly was a body elected in 1993 to draft a constitution for Cambodia as provided in the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements. The writing of the Cambodian Constitution took place between June and September 1993 and it resulted in the transformation of the political situation of Cambodia from civil-war-marred, autocratic oligarchy to a constitutional monarchy. Achieved under the guidance, auspices and funding of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), the drafting of the constitution was the culmination of a larger, $1.6 billion effort to end the decades-old country’s civil wars and bring the warring parties into political, rather than military competition. The result of the process was the creation of a constitution for Cambodia that, at least on paper, guarantees free political competition, regular elections, equal rights and representation and universal suffrage.

Ke Kim Yan is the former Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Armed Forces of Cambodia and currently one of the ten Deputy Prime Ministers of Cambodia. He is considered as a "highly professional officer with a realistic approach to the challenges before him".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Pailin</span> Last battle of the Khmer Rouge

The battle of Pailin also known as the Siege of Pailin is an armed conflict which extended from 1989 to 1997 as the last military act of the Khmer Rouge insurgency which took place in the Northwest of Cambodia in the last military stronghold of the Khmer Rouge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambodian conflict (1979–1998)</span> 1979-1998 Armed Conflict in Cambodia.

The Cambodian conflict or Khmer Rouge insurgency, was an armed conflict that began in 1979 when the Khmer Rouge government of Democratic Kampuchea was deposed during the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, and ended in 1999 when remaining Khmer Rouge forces surrendered. Between 1979 and the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, it was fought between the Vietnam-supported People's Republic of Kampuchea and an opposing coalition. After 1991, an unrecognized Khmer Rouge government and insurgent forces continued to fight against the new government of Cambodia from remote areas until their defeat in 1999.

References

  1. 1 2 Widyono (2008), p. 124
  2. ↑ UN Security Council Practices and Charter Research Branch (1995), p. 598
  3. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 35
  4. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 5
  5. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 95
  6. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 116
  7. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 115
  8. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 117
  9. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 118
  10. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 77
  11. ↑ Widyono (2008), pp. 84–5
  12. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 76
  13. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 78
  14. ↑ Ben Kiernan (20 November 1992). "COMMENT: U.N.'s Appeasement Policy Falls into Hands of Khmer Rouge Strategists". Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  15. ↑ Heder et al. (1995), p. 98
  16. ↑ "Soldiers Storm Cambodian City Mitterrand Is Scheduled to Visit : Southeast Asia: Three civilians are killed and 8 others wounded in attack. Troops steal 11 statues from Angkor Wat". Los Angeles Times. 11 February 1993.
  17. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 96
  18. ↑ Widyono (2008), pp. 97–8
  19. ↑ Heder et al. (1995), p. 170
  20. ↑ Heder et al. (1995), p. 196
  21. ↑ Parida, Sushobhan (2020). "Case Analysis of the Cambodian Elections of 1993 and 1998". doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.16926.77125.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  22. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 119
  23. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 120
  24. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 127
  25. ↑ Nohlen et al. (2001), p. 70
  26. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 126
  27. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 126
  28. ↑ Widyono (2008), pp. 128–9
  29. ↑ Widyono (2008), pp. 128–9
  30. ↑ Ker Munthit (18 June 1993). "Chakrapong-led Secession Collapses". Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  31. ↑ Widyono (2008), p. 130

Bibliography

Books

Reports

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.