South Viet Nam: The Candidates Emerge

The first stage of South Viet Nam's nationwide elections, the polling to select village officials, is nearing an end. So far, despite Viet Cong terrorism aimed at disrupting the elections, about 81% of all the voters in polling areas have gone to the polls to cast their ballots into the red-and-yellow straw boxes. By the end of April, some 1,800,000 Vietnamese in 991 villages will have exercised this basic right of democracy for the first time. In June, another 400,000 Vietnamese will vote in hamlet elections.

The pattern of voting reflects the realities—and the hopes—of the war in Viet Nam (see map). No voting is being attempted in areas held by the Viet Cong or strongly influenced by the Communists. The provinces with the highest percentage of villages participating are naturally those areas strongly secured by Saigon and the U.S. Allied control and influence are greatest in the areas of largest population density in South Viet Nam. But with commendable caution, Saigon is holding elections only where the safety of the voters from reprisals can be reasonably assured. Thus only about half of the nation's citizenry in the countryside will vote this summer; but as Allied control and influence continue to grow, each newly secured area will join the march to the polls.

In the process of electing their own officials, the villages and hamlets will acquire a long-desired autonomy from Saigon. Villages, for example, will be able to retain some 40% of the taxes they collect, spend it on local public works. Since decades of nonparticipation as the pawns of arbitrary central government have given the villagers few skills to manage their own affairs, the Saigon government is providing winning village-council candidates with crash courses in the fundamentals of bookkeeping and governing.

Looks & Flamboyance. On a national scale, several candidates are also undergoing crash courses in the art of running for the presidency, for which the electorate will vote in September. The two chief prospective candidates, of course, are the two generals who now rule the country: Premier Nguyen Cao Ky and Chief of State Nguyen Van Thieu. Both want the presidency, but each wants it with the support of the other and without splitting the armed forces into two camps. Thieu, at 44, is older than Ky by eight years and undoubtedly commands more respect among his fellow officers. A Catholic, a Northerner and an immensely competent but unobtrusive man, Thieu admits that Ky for the moment has all the advantages. The very Ky qualities that sometimes rub the generals the wrong way are electorally appealing: Ky's flamboyance in dress and dashing manner, his pilot's lean good looks and his beautiful wife. Moreover, Ky has, as Premier, been able to seed some key posts in the government with powerful supporters, such as Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of security and the political police.