Ky Elated By Elections

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31169, 20 September 1966, Page 23

Ky Elated By Elections

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) NEW YORK, Sept. 19.

The South Vietnamese Premier, Air Vice - Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky, said elatedly after last week’s national election that the balloting had provided “the conditions for final victory” over his Government’s enemies—but it would seem more accurate to say that elections provided . a framework in which final victory is no longer impossible, R. W. Apple wrote for the “New York Times” news service.

Apple wrote: According to Government statistics, 4,274,812 of the

nation’s 5,289,652 registered voters cast ballots for an 80.8 per cent turn-out. The country’s population is about 16 million. They chose 117 members for a Constituent Assembly which has the job of drafting a constitution for the country. South Vietnam has been without a constitution since the Diem Regime was overthrown in 1963.

The election figures were impressive the more so because there was no evidence of widespread fraud or coercion and both Washington and Saigon described them as evidence of a great upswelling of “democratic” spirit among the South Vietnamese.

Clearly, the Viet Cong rebels did not succeed in their announced intention of frightening people away from the polls. In the sense that the Government was able to achieve a large participation in the midst of the war, the election was a success. It was a success also in that it represented a first tentative

step towards supplying the formless South Vietnamese body politic with the vertebrae of popular institutions. It the assembly successfully carries out its work, if it does not clash with the predominantly military ruling junta, if the constitution is not then summarily suspended, then South Vietnam will have made an important advance toward political stability, and the prospects of a military victory over the communists will be enhanced. Finally, the election was a success for American diplomacy. Although Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and other United State officials were at first unenthusiastic about the prospects of voting so soon, they came to regard the election as an important weapon in foreign relations and domestic politics. The fact that it took place will help President Johnson combat the critics of his policies who are fond of calling the Ky regime a dictatorship. But several aspects of the voting not so favourable either to Air Vice Marshall Ky or the United States, have been largely obscured in the general euphoria. Among them are the following:

The election in no sense represented a test of strength between the Government and the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong were barred from participation either as candidates or electors. There is no evidence to suggest that the Ky regime has yet won the allegiance of those who opposed it before September 11. The election did nothing to alter the basic military balance of strength that now obtains between the allies and the enemy—a balance that has made neither side able, for the moment, to win a military victory. American troops, now numbering

more than 305,000 in Vietnam, have taken over much of the fighting from the Saigon Government’s forces, and the Defence Department announced this week that Americans killed by enemy action since January 1,1961, had passed the 5000 mark. Although it may in a small way have made the generals’ work easier by providing a symbol of their good will, the election is no substitute for the vital work of reconstruction in the hamlets. In the opinion of most officials in Saigon, there can be no real progress in the war until there is real

progress in rural construction, or pacification. The election is unlikely to work any profound change in the attitude of North Vietnam, whose leaders are apparently convinced —as they have been for months—that in a protracted war American political opinion will ultimately force a withdrawal of United States troops from Vietnam.

Perhaps the most important question in the months to come will be the attitude demonstrated by the assembly itself, and the ways in which this Influences its relations with the junta. Everything is spelled out in the electoral law under which the September 11 elections were held, but it will surprise most Vietnamese politicians if things work out as tidily as planned. The assembly, for example, is specifically forbidden to turn itself into a legislative body: yet many people expect it to try to do just that. In sum, the successful election provides yet another opportunity, perhaps the last, for the creation of stability in South Vietnam.