Ung Huot

Ung Huot
32nd Prime Minister of Cambodia
In office 6 August 1997 – 30 November 1998
Appointed by	National Assembly
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 Hun Sen
Preceded by	Norodom Sirivudh
Succeeded by	Hor Namhong
Minister of Education, Youth and Sport
In office 24 September 1993 – 24 October 1994
Prime Minister	Norodom Ranariddh Hun Sen
Member of the National Assembly
In office 14 June 1993 – 26 July 1998
Constituency	Kandal Province
Personal details
Born	(1945-01-01) 1 January 1945 Kandal, Cambodia
Citizenship	Cambodia Australia
Political party	FUNCINPEC (1981–1998)
Spouse	Ung Malis Yvonne
Alma mater	Royal University of Phnom Penh 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 first served as Minister of Education, and later as Minister of Foreign Affairs before being appointed as Prime Minister.

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 received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Melbourne, and became an Australian citizen. 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 Education, 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.