Sunday, June 4, 1972
Lon Nol Landslide Reported Likely
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) --Marshal Lon Nol is a heavy favorite for election as president Sunday despite his lack of personal campaigning.The marshal, now president by his own proclamation, is partly paralyzed from a 1971 stroke. He has restricted his campaign efforts to conferring with workers at his fortified villa.It looks as if his one serious rival, former Vice Premier In Tam, may be lucky to get more than 20 per cent of the vote.The third candidate, Keo An, is dean of Phnom Penh University's law school and a political unknown. The government has been trying to eject him from the faculty apartment where his living room serves as his political command post.Lon Nol's posters cover city walls. Sound trucks tour Phnom Penh. Demonstrators on his behalf tour the capital aboard trucks donated to the Khmer army by the United States.Few posters for In Tam or Keo An are to be seen.Neither man can afford anything like the lavish show being put on for Lon Nol. In Tam complains that the governor of Kampot Province banned In Tam workers. There have also been reports of In Tam supporters roughed up by soldiers.In Tam, former brigadier general, urges a crackdown on corruption among high army officers. Many are rich men thanks to army payroll so padded with names of dead or non-existent soldiers that Lon Nol himself has no clear idea how many troops he commands.In Tam apparently is looking beyond the presidential race to the National Assembly election which, according to the constitution, should be held shortly afterward."Lon Nol Landslide Reported Likely", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Sunday, June 4, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.