Central Committee 11th Congress
Laos’ ruling party met in Janaury 2021 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. They were elected by 768 delegates, who represented all 348,686 Party members at the congress, held every five years to elect the new leadership.
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 selected a general secretary, politburo party central committee and a politburo. The general secretary also serves as state president and appointed a prime minister, to be rubber stamped by the Lao National Assembly. In an opaque and secretive political system, predictions of the leadership line-up to be unveiled varied among ordinary Laotians, ruling party members and foreign experts.
The current or 10th Congress comprised 11 Politburo members, including the Secretary General of the PCC and President Bounnhang Vorachit, Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, and the President of the National Assembly, Mrs Pany Yathotou. An election is also scheduled to choose the new Secretary General of the PCC, the top post in the Party. The Party chief commonly also holds the post of state president. Both positions are currently held by Mr Bounnhang.
In his opening speech, Lao Party General Secretary and State President Bounnhang Vorachith said the congress will study and pass a political report by the LPRP’s Central Committee and the ninth five-year socio-economic development plan for 2021-2025. The congress is also scheduled to approve the Party’s revised statutes and elect a new Party Central Committee for the upcoming tenure, he added.
The Party General Secretary presented the political report, which pointed to the difficulties that the country faced in the past five years both in the domestic and overseas situation. However, under the Party’s leadership, progresses were made in the implementation of the 10th Party National Congress’s Resolution, particularly in ensuring political stability and national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity; sustaining production and people’s living standards; and reducing poverty, among others. During the past five years, Laos posted an average growth rate of 5.8 percent a year, and the average per capita income reached US$2,664 in 2020, up US$694 from 2015.
Between the 13th and 15th of the month, the party congress elected a new general secretary of the party and more than 70 members of the party central committee. Observers expected to see some new and young faces in the new leadership because most current leaders are old. There will be a new party leader because many of the current leaders are of retirement age, between 60 and 65 years old. There must be some changes.
General Secretary Bounnhang Vorachith is 83, while prime minister Thongloun Sisoulith, is 75. Some Laotians in the capital Vientiane believed that the Vietnam-educated Bounnhang Vorachith will retire and vice-president Phankham Viphavanh, 70, will be chosen as party general secretary, then later as state president. Phankham Viphavanh will be the new party general secretary because he is clean. Thongloun Sisoulith, the current prime minister, will serve another term of five years. Thongloun is 75 and was educated in the Soviet Union.
Experts on Laos in next-door Thailand saw things differently, with Bounnhang Vorachith remaining in power to serve a second term. The chances of Bounnhang stepping down were slim. His health is not bad and he was still needed by the party. It would depend on bargaining over power. If he stayed at the top, Thongloun or Pany would be vice president [Pany Yathotou was chairwoman of the Lao National Assembly]. If Bounnhang Vorachith stepped down, Thongloun would replace him at the top of the Party and government because as prime minister he is considered highly experienced. If Thongloun becomes the party leader, another powerful politician, Sonexay Siphandone, a deputy prime minister and son of a former Party General Secretary Khamtai Siphandone, may take over the premiership, because he has been very active lately.
The new Lao leaders will lean toward traditional mentor Vietnam. The changes will be more positive and will improve the relationship with Vietnam. Vietnam will provide more assistance to Laos in terms of education, technology and especially access to ports or to the sea.
Whoever emerges at the helm will have to steer Laos through recovery from the coronavirus pandemic -- which has devastated the country’s tourism and entertainment sectors and migrant labor remittances from Thailand – and deal with deep-seated economic troubles beginning with debt.
In 2020 the World Bank warned that Laos' debt -- most of it owed to China -- could hit 68 percent of GDP, while the U.S. ratings agency Moody's warned of a risk that Laos could default on its debts. The LPRP’s rigid rejection of change in a political system built on “patronage and loyalty” made it difficult to implement broad tax system or state-owned industry reforms to cut debt levels. After a change of leadership at the communist party’s quinquennial National Congress early next year, there may be a slight shift in direction. But all indicators point to business as usual. Laos has backed itself into a corner and its political system limits the possible routes of escape.
In February 2021 a national election would take place to elect members of the National Assembly. Shortly after they have been elected, members of the parliament’s 9th legislature would hold an inaugural session to elect a new state president and prime minister, and approve new cabinet members. Washington-based Freedom House classified Laos as “not free” with a global freedom score of 14 out of 100 in its 2020 Freedom of the World survey, a score that ties Cuba and falls between China’s 10 and Vietnam’s 20.
Laos’ ruling Communist Party was set to elevate Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, a veteran official credited with fighting corruption, to party chief and state president to run the one-party state for five years, according to party voting lists announced 14 January 2021. The Soviet-trained Sisoulith, 75, emerged at the top of a list of 71 members of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Central Committee Secretariat, while incumbent LPRP chief and Lao President Bounnhang Vorachith was left off the list, indicating his retirement at 83. Ranking after Thongloun Sisoulith on the leadership slate are Pany Yathotou, chairwoman of Lao National Assembly; deputy prime minister Bounthong Chitmany; and vice-president Phankham Viphavanh.
In his speech to the Jan 13-15 congress in Vientiane, Sisoulith took aim at poor financial management, debt and murky business practices in the landlocked country of 7.2 million people that has known only LRPR rule since 1975. “During the last five years, the debt has not been successfully tackled. Our financial management has failed. The stability of our currency has been delicate and our foreign currency reserves have been lower than planned,” he told the congress.
Sisoulith, who held multiple senior posts in government since 1987 and became prime minister in 2016, said the country’s business culture is “lacking transparency” while problems included high unemployment, poor job security and illegal immigration. He outlined five-year economic development goals including reducing poverty and inequality; improving access to healthcare and education for the poor; diversifying the economy away from dependence on exploitation of natural resources, reducing debt and “financial leaks,” and fixing the tax collection system. Thongloun deserved to be at the top because he is very experienced politician. As prime minister, he has had some success cracking on corruption, illegal logging and banning the export of wood.
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