South Vietnamese Prepare For Elections

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31123, 28 July 1966, Page 17

South Vietnamese Prepare For Elections

()i.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SAIGON, July 27. The South Vietnamese Prime Minister, General Nguyen Cao Ky, declared today that his Government was doing its best to prepare for the September national elections “so that the majority of the people can go to the polls”.

General Ky also asserted that the South Vietnamese armed forces and their allies were keeping the initiative in the war and inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. He said this in a state-of-the-nation statement to about

300 Vietnamese and foreign newsmen. His declaration, intended for home consumption, contained a compilation of progress achieved on the home front in the first five months of this year in such fields as ' agriculture, public works, edu- ; cation and pacification.

Premier Ky defined the three main objectives of his government:

1. Defeat of the Communists and pacification of the country. 2. Stabilisation of the economic situation. 3. Building of a viable democracy.

He said his government was dedicated to support the revolutionary development of South Vietnam with the twofold mission of waging the war and building the nation. General Ky declared that the recent Buddhist-led political disturbances had seriously affected the revolutionary development projects, but that “these projects were only delayed, not cancelled.” LIST READ He read off a statistical list of advances in training revolutionary cadres, construction of “new life” hamlets, work on self-help projects and in the fields of education, public works and agriculture. He said his government “does not want to be affected by statistics as the previous regimes” but rather preferred a “confrontation with realities to meet the aspirations of the people.” Speaking about the country’s future constitution, General Ky commented: “1 think South Vietnam, being in need of a social revolution and being the victim of aggression, should have a strong regime.” 650 CANDIDATES He was answering a question about reports that he was impressed with the South Korean constitution and considered urging the introduction of a similar one in South Vietnam. He said 650 candidates had so far registered for the September poll. He said they represented all social classes and political parties except Communists and “neutralists” who are barred from either standing or voting. In Tokyo a monitored broadcast quoted the Viet Cong’s political organisation as calling today for a boycott of the South Vietnamese elections scheduled for September. N.L.F. STATEMENT “By this farce the Thieu-Ky clique of traitors, on their United States masters’ orders, are trying to put a veneer of

democracy to their moth-eaten throne,” the Presidium of the central committee of the South Vietnam National Liberation Front declared in a statement in Hanoi. The statement said the elections being called by the South Vietnamese President and Prime Minister were an attempt to hoodwink public opinion in Vietnam and abroad by the “runnings dogs of United States imperialism.”