A small home-made bomb exploded outside the headquarters of Cambodia?s royalist FUNCINPEC party yesterday, police said, marring an otherwise peaceful election day in the troubled south-east Asian nation. The discovery of two grenades in a plastic bag near the Royal Palace dealt a further blow to the fledgling democracy and its slow, sometimes violent journey back from the horrors of the 1970s Khmer Rouge genocide.

One person was slightly injured in the blast which left scorch marks on pavement around 30 yards from the FUNCINPEC gates, officials said. Prime Minister Hun Sen, an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier, and his Cambodian People?s Party (CPP) looks set to win another five years in power, with support coming from many voters who revere him for overseeing the final Khmer Rouge surrender in 1998.

Official results are not due until August 8 because of the problems of retrieving ballot-boxes ? in some cases by elephant ? from remote jungle outposts. However, a fair idea of the outcome should be available by this evening. Although critics say he rules with an iron fist, Hun Sen has brought much-needed stability to a country suffering the legacy of 30 years of civil war, including the Khmer Rouge genocide. An estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died of starvation, disease or torture in Pol Pot?s ultra-Maoist rural labour camps, which became known as the ?Killing Fields?.

?The weather is good today, so everybody is happy and they are going to vote,? said Hun Sen, smiling and waving his purple-inked index finger at a school near the capital to show he had cast his vote according to the rules. As polling closed at 3 p.m. (0800 GMT), international observers sealed ballot-boxes ready for vote-counting today. ?More than 80 percent of registered voters have turned up. That is good ? its shows Cambodian democracy is healthy,? said National Election Committee spokesman, Leng Sochea.

Still violent, but less so

Monitors say political killings have been fewer than in the violent campaigns of 1993 and 1998, although voter intimidation, especially in far-flung jungle regions, remains widespread. Millions of dollars of aid depends on the credibility of the electoral process, which even Hun Sen?s arch enemy, opposition leader Sam Rainsy, conceded showed signs of improvement. ?There were some incidents, but I do not think in a systematic way,? he told reporters after voting. One international monitor said she had seen ?numerous irregularities? in the politically fraught province of Kompong Cham, although none were serious and there was no violence. Even before the bomb explosion in the centre of Phnom Penh, many voters were fearful that the elections would unleash more unrest, as in past years. ?I was a little afraid during the campaign. I only want peace for my grandchildren,? said 60-year-old villager Koa Samihat at a temple polling booth near Phnom Penh. However, there was little doubting the democratic zeal of many of the 6.3 million registered voters, including even top Khmer Rouge leaders who could soon be facing trial for genocide. ?I would like to join myself in the discussion about the problem our country is facing now,? ex-Khmer Rouge president Khieu Samphan told reporters after casting his vote in the western province of Pailin, one of the last guerrilla redoubts. The CPP?s overall victory is in little doubt, but diplomats say robust campaigns by the royalist FUNCINPEC and opposition Sam Rainsy parties mean Hun Sen is unlikely to win the two-thirds of seats needed for outright control of the National Assembly.