ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a core element of political transition, the power transfer in Cambodia which occurred under conditions of multi-party pluralism coupled to universal suffrage, from what was the sole ruling elite to what would be a quadripartite coalition. It presents the stage of the political transition beginning with the signing of the Paris Agreements in 1991 and continuing with the UNTAC-managed elections. This chapter focuses on the refusal of the Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) to accept a political defeat that threatened to marginalise their position in the National Assembly as it evolved after the May 1993 elections. It examines the problem in the context of the conditions created by the Paris Peace Agreement (PPA) and the absence of a culturally sophisticated consideration of the period in which power would be transferred. The US Mission withdrew its resistance to the coalition and reluctantly accepted the political propriety of the body.
