Laos-Election  

By Linda Ehrichs
   VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) -- With Thailand mired in economic 
and political turmoil and Cambodia in factional warfare, 
Laos looks like an island of stability in Southeast Asia.
   Preparing for its second parliamentary elections, this 
one-party communist state is rolling along -- slowly and 
gradually -- with political and economic reforms adopted in 
1986 that don't threaten the basic power structure.
   Sunday's elections mark the most open political process 
in Laos since the ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party 
came to power at the end of the Indochina conflict in 1975.
   Laos, once one of the region's most closed countries, 
remains unmarked by the relative political instability of 
some of its neighbors -- Thailand has had four governments 
since 1995, Cambodia had a coup in July.
   But the economic crisis ravaging Asia's far more 
powerful economies has not spared Laos. The country's 
biggest trading partner is Thailand, and the Laotian kip, 
which is closely tied to the slumping Thai baht, has 
plummeted 80 percent since midyear.
   Five years after the first parliamentary elections, the 
National Assembly is being expanded from 85 to 99. Simple 
billboards lining Lane Xang Avenue, the main street in the 
capital, Vientiane, announce the vote.
   Constitutionally, the Assembly has the authority to pass 
budgets, make laws and oversee the executive and judicial 
branches. Practically, however, power rests with Prime 
Minister Khamtay Siphandone and the Politburo.
   Chaleun Yiapoheu, president of the National Assembly's 
standing committee, noted that candidates are not required 
to be ruling party members. However, all but four 
businessmen among the 159 candidates are party members.
   Twenty-seven of the candidates are women, and about one-
third of the 47 ethnic groups are represented. Highly 
influential party members are among those running for 
office, including the president of the current Assembly, 
Samane Viyaketh, and one of three Politburo members. Ten 
other candidates belong to the party's powerful central 
committee.
   The results, which could take days to arrive from more 
remote regions, will be the closest thing to an opinion 
poll the government ever has allowed. Voting is mandatory 
for the 2.5 million of the country's 4.5 million people who 
are eligible to vote.
   Laos is one of the world's least-developed countries, 
and most people live by subsistence agriculture. One-
quarter of men and half of women are illiterate. Life 
expectancy is short -- 50 for men and 53 for women.