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Lao legislators to set president, prime minister candidates

Xinhua, April 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

Legislators in the southeast Asian nation of Laos are set to consider candidates for key leadership positions including President and Prime Minister at a session set for April 20-23, the country's National Election Commission confirmed Monday.

The National Assembly session, the first since the election of the country's 8th legislature in March, is set to consider the country's 8th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) for 2016-2020 as well as policy Strategy and Vision to 2025 and 2030 respectively.

The three-and-a half day session is to be presided over by President of the National Assembly's previous seventh legislature Pany Yathotou.

Candidates for heads of the Supreme Prosecutors Office and Supreme Court will also be considered by the 149 parliamentarians of the unicameral chamber.

Aspirants for state leadership, whose candidacies come with assent of the Central Committee of the country's ruling Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP), are expected to reflect both the outcomes of January's 10th Congress and the make-up of its Political Bureau (Politbureau), which witnessed the elevation of Bounnhang Vorachit to the party leadership position of secretary-general.

Previous LPRP Secretary-General, the country's two-term head-of-state President Choummaly Sayasone and serving head-of-government, Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, are not standing for reappointment to their respective roles.

Adhering to a five-year electoral cycle, Laos officially enshrined a preexisting convention for two-term limits applied to the position of head-of-state in its constitution via an amendment approved by the National Assembly in December last year.

With single-party political and governance institutions based on a Marxist-Leninist model, the Lao People's Democratic Republic was established on Dec. 2, 1975 led by LPRP co-founder and inaugural Secretary-General, President Kaysone Phomvihane. Endit