Ung Huot

Ung Huot
36th Prime Minister of Cambodia First Prime Minister of Cambodia
In office 6 August 1997 – 30 November 1998
Monarch	Norodom Sihanouk
Preceded by	Norodom Ranariddh
Succeeded by	Hun Sen
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
In office 24 October 1994 – 30 November 1998
Prime Minister	Norodom Ranariddh
Preceded by	Norodom Sirivudh
Succeeded by	Hor Namhong
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications
In office 24 September 1993 – 24 October 1994
Prime Minister	Norodom Ranariddh
Member of the Constituent Assembly
In office 14 June 1993 – 26 July 1998
Constituency	Kandal Province
Personal details
Born	(1945-01-01) 1 January 1945 Kandal, Cambodia
Political party	FUNCINPEC (1981–98)
Spouse	Ung Malis Yvonne
Alma mater	University of Melbourne (MBA)

Ung Huot (Template:Lang-km; born 1 January 1945) is a Cambodian politician who served from 1997 to 1998 as Prime Minister of Cambodia, alongside Hun Sen. A member of the Funcinpec Party, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. He later established the Rastra Niyum Party but failed to gain any seats in parliament in 1998.

Life and career

Ung Huot was born in 1945 in Kandal Province. He studied accounting and finance and was awarded a scholarship to study in Australia in 1971, as Cambodia's civil war was beginning. He settled in Melbourne and proclaimed himself a leader of the Cambodian expatriate committee in that city. He moved back to Cambodia in 1991 as the communist government was falling, and became a high-ranking official in the Funcinpec party. He became the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, and in 1994 he left that post to become foreign minister.

In July 1997, Funcinpec leader Norodom Ranariddh, who was serving as first prime minister, was deposed by second prime minister Hun Sen of Funcinpec's rival and coalition partner, the Cambodian People's Party. Hun invited Ung to become first prime minister to replace Ranariddh. Ranariddh's father, King Norodom Sihanouk at first refused to recognize the arrangement, but Ung became first prime minister in August 1997 after being elected by Parliament. When some people within Funcinpec accused Ung of being a puppet, he was forced to leave Funcinpec and form his own party, the Reastr-Niyum Party (Populist Party). In the 1998 elections, the Reastr-Niyum Party did not gain any seats in Parliament, and Ung was forced to resign from the posts of first prime minister and foreign minister, leaving Hun to be the sole prime minister.