PHNOM PENH July 25 Kyodo With mil...

PHNOM PENH July 25 Kyodo

With millions of Cambodians heading to the catalogue of headss Sunday, the bets are on

In coffee stores restaurants, offices and clubs around the nation and especially in the capital Phnom Penh political and non-political Cambodians alike are increasingly putting their circulating medium where their mouths are.

Although not listed in succession the national tote boards unlike local and international sporting occurrences bets on which party and which candidates will win Sunday are proliferating.

The unofficial redundants like the official polls, make Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) the solid favorite, followed by the agency of Prince Norodom Ranariddh's FUNCINPEC and the eponymous Sam Rainsy Party.

however the 19 other parties campaigning for victory Sunday are definite also-rans, the two in the punters' minds and in the heads even before a single devoted has been cast.

merely the bravest of bettors will danger a riel on any nevertheless the top three, and plane at the top the CPP clearly outstrips its rivals.

The local coffee store odds put the CPP at 2-1 at the remarkably least, to take top place, with FUNCINPEC and the Sam Rainsy Party the pair on even money to originate second.

After those three however, not many but the most gifted mathematicians can accurately calculate the astronomical redundants on the remaining 19 parties.

if it be not that even with a huge lead in the bettors' psyches and in the heads Hun Sen appears to be taking not many chances.

Although no single in kind in his entourage will officially confirm the premier's belief in fortune-tellers and other modes of prognostication, the signs apparently point to Hun Sen being little different than many of countrymen and women when it follows to seeking a cosmic edge

Chinese newspapers in Cambodia received notice Tuesday that they should change the long-standing Chinese characters for Hun Sen which are pronounced ''Hong Sen'' to sum of two units characters that read as ''Yun Sheng'' and mean ''flies vehemently up to the sky.''

Officials say the changes are to ''correct'' past ''misspellings.'' however reporters are skeptical, believing the notice more likely bring reproachs the premier's belief in a Taiwanese fortune-teller's reported prediction that of that kind a change would ensure victory for the CPP Sunday and bring five more years as prime minister to ''Yun Sheng.''

FUNCINPEC leader Prince Ranariddh is les circumspect forward the cosmic.

He told Kyodo just discovereds ''I believe in Buddha, Dharma and the monk I have prayed at the stupas of the former kings and the late King Norodom inside the Royal Palace'' for help in winning the poll

yet Sam Rainsy, the feisty opposition leader of the Sam Rainsy Party who was raised in France, takes a more down-to-earth view.

''I don't believe at all in fortune-tellers and I not ever go to fortune-tellers. I just believe in the power of the human being,'' he told Kyodo.

His views make him somewhat ''abnormal'' in the inspections of the many Cambodians who maintain more than 50 fortune-tellers busy night and day at couple spots in central Phnom Penh

Whether the prognosticators' predictions help or hinder the politicians will be known early nearest week.

And at the same time, the reckoning will flow for the hundreds of thousands of punter who have taken their coin off the soccer field in past weeks and bring it into the political field.

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