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NO CHANGES SEEN AS LAOS HEADS FOR THE POLLS
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Vientiane - Voters in Laos flocked to polling stations on Sunday for five-yearly elections as the ageing leadership of one of the world's last communist regimes vowed to bring in new blood while maintaining its grip on power. The polls feature a younger, better-educated team of legislators and more women but changes to the lineup will make little difference to state policies in the landlocked country or the secretive Lao People's Revolutionary Party, in power since it overthrew a pro-Western constitutional monarchy 26 years ago.
President Khamtay Siphandone, chairman of the ruling party, pledged continuity as he joined a trickle of early voters at a polling station in the capital. "In the party apparatus there won't be any change because the past National Assembly (dissolved last year) has made all the necessary changes," he told reporters. Laos has some 2.5 million eligible voters over the age of 18 in its 18 constituencies nationwide. No foreign observers have been invited or allowed at the polls.
"Cambodia has asked around for observers at its elections, but elections in Laos will need no observers because they are free and fair," National Election Committee spokesman Viseth Svengsuksa told a news conference on the eve of the election.
Security in the Laotian capital of Vientiane was not as tight as during the seventh party congress last March, but nightclubs and bars were closed down on the eve of the polls.
Laotians will choose 109 National Assembly members from 166 candidates pre-picked by the communist party to help run the poverty-stricken country, one of the world's poorest. "The seventh party congress in 2001 has already set up a development plan which includes the political and social development of the country," said Khamtay.
Asked if Laos would eventually move to a multi-party system, he said: "You should ask the people whether they want a multi-party system. They have liberty to say what they want, but at the moment I believe the people have full confidence in the party. But in the future it will depend on circumstances," he said.
The ruling party said the new legislative body will help achieve its plan to reduce poverty by half by 2005. "This general election will promote the country's democracy to a higher level and improve the quality of politics to be the true democracy of the people, by the people and for the people," Viseth said.He said more women had been included on the ballot for the fifth National Assembly vote, and that more candidates than ever before had post-graduate degrees. The average age of the candidates is 51, about 10 years younger than the previous crop. "About 25, 30 yrs ago, we had...a dozen of parties, but those parties kept on fighting and did nothing at all," Viseth told reporters. "One party is very good for our situation to improve the economy (and) to upgrade living standards." The new assembly will replace a 99-member chamber dissolved four years into its term. Only one of the candidates, Justice Minister Khamouane Boupha, is not a member of the communist party and is running as an independent, but with the full approval of the party. He is in his fourth term as a cabinet minister.
The elections come just a few months after a group of foreign political activists, led by a European Union parliamentarian, were arrested and deported for taking part in a democracy protest and demanding the release of political prisoners.
Laos' 5.4 million people are among the poorest in the world, most living below the World Bank's poverty line of well under one dollar a day. The Southeast Asian country was hit hard by the 1997/98 Asian economic crisis and his heavily dependent on trade with neighbouring Thailand which is only recovering slowly.
President Khamtay Siphandone, chairman of the ruling party, pledged continuity as he joined a trickle of early voters at a polling station in the capital. "In the party apparatus there won't be any change because the past National Assembly (dissolved last year) has made all the necessary changes," he told reporters. Laos has some 2.5 million eligible voters over the age of 18 in its 18 constituencies nationwide. No foreign observers have been invited or allowed at the polls.
"Cambodia has asked around for observers at its elections, but elections in Laos will need no observers because they are free and fair," National Election Committee spokesman Viseth Svengsuksa told a news conference on the eve of the election.
Security in the Laotian capital of Vientiane was not as tight as during the seventh party congress last March, but nightclubs and bars were closed down on the eve of the polls.
Laotians will choose 109 National Assembly members from 166 candidates pre-picked by the communist party to help run the poverty-stricken country, one of the world's poorest. "The seventh party congress in 2001 has already set up a development plan which includes the political and social development of the country," said Khamtay.
Asked if Laos would eventually move to a multi-party system, he said: "You should ask the people whether they want a multi-party system. They have liberty to say what they want, but at the moment I believe the people have full confidence in the party. But in the future it will depend on circumstances," he said.
The ruling party said the new legislative body will help achieve its plan to reduce poverty by half by 2005. "This general election will promote the country's democracy to a higher level and improve the quality of politics to be the true democracy of the people, by the people and for the people," Viseth said.He said more women had been included on the ballot for the fifth National Assembly vote, and that more candidates than ever before had post-graduate degrees. The average age of the candidates is 51, about 10 years younger than the previous crop. "About 25, 30 yrs ago, we had...a dozen of parties, but those parties kept on fighting and did nothing at all," Viseth told reporters. "One party is very good for our situation to improve the economy (and) to upgrade living standards." The new assembly will replace a 99-member chamber dissolved four years into its term. Only one of the candidates, Justice Minister Khamouane Boupha, is not a member of the communist party and is running as an independent, but with the full approval of the party. He is in his fourth term as a cabinet minister.
The elections come just a few months after a group of foreign political activists, led by a European Union parliamentarian, were arrested and deported for taking part in a democracy protest and demanding the release of political prisoners.
Laos' 5.4 million people are among the poorest in the world, most living below the World Bank's poverty line of well under one dollar a day. The Southeast Asian country was hit hard by the 1997/98 Asian economic crisis and his heavily dependent on trade with neighbouring Thailand which is only recovering slowly.
