Ung Huot

First Prime Minister of CambodiaIn office
6 August 1997 – 30 November 1998Appointed byNational AssemblyMonarchNorodom SihanoukPreceded byNorodom RanariddhSucceeded byHun Sen (as Prime Minister)Minister of Foreign Affairs and International CooperationIn office
24 October 1994 – 30 November 1998Prime MinisterNorodom Ranariddh
Hun SenPreceded byNorodom SirivudhSucceeded byHor NamhongMinister of Education, Youth and SportsIn office
24 September 1993 – 24 October 1994Prime MinisterNorodom Ranariddh
Hun SenMember of the National AssemblyIn office
14 June 1993 – 26 July 1998ConstituencyKandal Personal detailsBorn (1945-01-01) 1 January 1945 (age 79)
Kandal, Cambodia, French IndochinaCitizenshipPolitical partyFUNCINPECSpouseMalis Yvonne Ung^[1]Alma materRoyal University of Phnom Penh
University of Melbourne (MBA)

Ung Huot (Khmer: អ៊ឹង ហួត; born 2 March 1945)^[2] is a Cambodian former politician who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia from 1997 to 1998, alongside Hun Sen. A member of the FUNCINPEC Party, he served as Minister of Education, and Minister of Foreign Affairs prior to his appointment as First 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.^[3] 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

References

Political offices
Preceded by Norodom Ranarridh	Prime Minister of Cambodia 1997–1998	Succeeded by Hun Sen
Preceded by Norodom Sirivudh	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1994–1998	Succeeded by Hor Namhong