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Deal ends Cambodia deadlock
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Reuters) -- Cambodia's three political parties, summoned by King Norodom Sihanouk to break a post-election stalemate, have agreed to form a new government, officials said. They agreed after months of wrangling since disputed July elections that Hun Sen, prime minister for nearly 20 years, should keep the job. "The leaders of the three parties have agreed at the talks that a new government will be formed and led by Prime Minister Hun Sen," Om Yentieng, a spokesman of Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), told Reuters on Wednesday. "We accepted that the CPP has the right to nominate a candidate for prime minister," said Ung Bun Ang, a spokesman of the Sam Rainsy Party, named after its leader. Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Sihanouk's son and head of the Royalist FUNCINPEC party, would be chairman of the National Assembly. Sam Rainsy would become a deputy prime minister or a National Assembly vice chairman, officials said. Representatives of the three parties, who met at the Royal Palace for talks hosted by King Norodom Sihanouk, also agreed to let Prime Minister Hun Sen make a bid for the leadership post by seeking a vote in the National Assembly. "The king has brought a great victory to the Cambodian people," said Om Yentieng, a senior adviser to Hun Sen. "The three parties have agreed to have the leadership of the National Assembly and the government that will include all three parties," he said.
The agreement is an apparent breakthrough in the deadlock that resulted from the July 27 elections in which Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party won 73 seats in the 123-member National Assembly, short of a two-thirds majority needed to create a government on its own. The royalist Funcinpec and the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, which took the remaining seats, had refused to join a coalition unless Hun Sen stepped down as prime minister. They formed an alliance to oppose him. But the two parties appear to have dropped their opposition to Hun Sen after the talks, which Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Ung Bun Ang described as "friendly" and "productive." A new Cambodian government could be formed with a "reasonable delay," he said. Under the agreement, Funcinpec and Sam Rainsy Party agreed that Hun Sen's name would be forwarded to Sihanouk, the constitutional monarch, as the sole prime ministerial candidate. The king would then present his candidacy to the National Assembly for a formal vote of confidence. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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