Sunday, 5 October 2008

Cambodian prince steps down as party leader

International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
Published: October 4, 2008

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Prince Norodom Ranariddh, a key leader in post-civil war Cambodia, has resigned as his party's chief and also quit politics just days after returning home from 18 months in exile, his party said Saturday.

The prince handed in his resignation on Friday evening, a party statement said, without giving a reason.

Suth Dina, the party spokesman, said the prince told supporters he had spent enough time pursuing a political career and it was time to retire. He said Ranariddh had informed King Norodom Sihamoni, his half brother, about his decision.

Last week, Ranariddh returned from 18 months in exile in Malaysia after the king pardoned him for an embezzlement conviction.

Ranariddh is a son of retired King Norodom Sihanouk, from whom he inherited Funcinpec, a former armed Cambodian resistance movement.

Ranariddh converted Funcinpec into a royalist party that won United Nations-sponsored elections in 1993. The elections were part of a peace process aimed at ending civil war in Cambodia.

But since then his political popularity has nose-dived and he was sacked as president of Funcinpec in 2006 for alleged incompetence.

The prince formed a new party — the Norodom Ranariddh Party — which won only two of 123 seats in the National Assembly in July elections.

The party has chosen Chhim Siek Leng, the vice president, to replace him.

No comments: