Citizen journalist
Laos’ ruling party meets this week to select its top leadership to run the one-party communist state for five years, with some Laotians anticipating changes while experts say the elderly party brass could remain in place as the country tackles mounting debt and other deep-seated economic woes.
The landlocked country of 7.2 million people has been ruled since 1975 by the communist Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP), which monopolizes political power and control of the media, squashes all dissent, and retains tight fraternal party ties with Vietnam while deepening economic ties with China.
Meeting as the Lao economy reels from a year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the LPRP’s Jan 13-15 congress will select a general secretary, politburo party central committee and a politburo. The general secretary also serves as state president and will appoint a prime minister, to be rubber stamped by the Lao National Assembly.