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In 1991 the four warring political parties had to
sign the Paris Peace Agreement. This agreement made the four
groups into the main political parties of Cambodia. "The
Khmer Rouge became the Party of Democratic Kampuchea (PDK).
The Vietnamese-backed government ran Cambodia following Vietnam’s
invasion in 1978 became the Cambodian People’s Party
(CPP). A royalist group headed by Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s
son, Norodom Ranariddh, reverted to its old name, the National
United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative
Cambodia (FUNCINPEC), while a non-Communist group headed by
Son Sann split into the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party
(BLDP) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) (pg. 28).
In 1993, The United Nations sent
22,000 troops onto Cambodia to manage a general election in
Cambodia . This was the biggest and most expensive peace operation
in UN history. "The U.N. managed to register 4.8 million
voters, established over 1,400 polling stations, and brought
back 360,000 refugees, who had been living in camps in Thailand."
The election results were a great mix. Three of the four parties
won majority votes so FUNCINPEC, CPP and BLDP were merged
into one to form a government. " In October 1993 Prince
Ranariddh of FUNCINPEC was installed as first prime minister,
with Hun Sen of the CPP as second prime minister (pg. 27-28).
When the elections were over the
UN pulled out of Cambodia. People were waiting to see if the
new government could stand on their own. Given, Cambodia’s
government has a long ways to go before it’s stable
but nations across the world and Cambodia’s citizens
have faith in there success.
Source:Sheehan,
Sean. Cambodia. Tarrytown, New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation,
1996.
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