ABSTRACT
Cambodian leaders, effectively under a form of international political and media siege since 1991, took things into their own hands to settle the unresolved conflict transferred from the battlefield to Parliament by the Paris Peace Agreement (PPA). Without political stability on Cambodian terms, which are constructed more in terms of elite absolutism rather than democratic ideals, stability is a necessary precursor to socio-economic development and the evolution of a political democracy. The new political order was defined in terms of denying the past and creating a future which would ensure that many would participate in government by a form of mutual consent dispensed primarily by certain members of the elite and accepted with gratitude by other self-serving interests. The process of holding elections required constitutionally determined institutions to be created or, where existing, to be used impartially, and for a neutral political environment to be ensured in which a free and fair election could be managed reliably and safely.
