Norodom Ranariddh - Biography

Biography

Prince Norodom Ranariddh grew up in Phnom Penh and he lived in France for many years. He was appointed a lecturer in law at the University of Provence, now Aix-Marseille Université, and remains one of the world experts in aspects of maritime law. Until recently he still gave lectures at the university, even when he was Prime Minister.

For most of the period of the Vietnamese Occupation of Cambodia 1979–1989, Prince Ranariddh led the Royalist movement, FUNCINPEC. When the monarchy was restored in 1993, his political party won the elections, the first free elections since 1972. As such he is regarded by many Cambodians as the man who brought democracy back to the country. He became Prime Minister, but had to serve jointly with his father's rival Hun Sen who had lost the 1993 elections but wanted to hang onto power and insisted that he remained in the government. By agreement, the two first shared the title of Prime Minister with Ranariddh as First Prime Minister, while Hun Sen became Second Prime Minister. Prince Ranarddh tried to reform the country but was obstructed by Hun Sen. These differences came to a head in July 1997 when Rannaridh was ousted by Hun Sen in a bloody coup d'état which saw some of Prince Ranariddh's supporters being killed, and his house looted.

After initially fleeing the country, Prince Ranariddh returned to Cambodia to participate in the national elections held in 1998. Because campaigning freely was not allowed, his party suffered heavy losses yet managed to form a new coalition with Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh became Chairman of the Cambodian National Assembly.

When King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated in October 2004, Ranariddh was a likely choice for king owing to his popularity. However, he renounced his interest in the post, and later that month he was part of the nine-member throne council which convened and chose Norodom Sihamoni to be the next king.

He was chairman of the Funcinpec political party but was removed by a party vote on 18 October 2006, which was led by once his closest advisor and general Gen. Nhek Bun Chhay.

Subsequently he established the Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP), which outpolled Funcinpec and is currently the third largest party in Cambodia. In the 2008 national election his new party won two seats in the national assembly.