The National Assembly ( lo, ສະພາແຫ່ງຊາດ, translit=Sapha Heng Xat, french: Assemblée nationale) is the
unicameral
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one.
Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
of
Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist s ...
. The National Assembly meets in
Vientiane
Vientiane ( , ; lo, ວຽງຈັນ, ''Viangchan'', ) is the capital and largest city of Laos. Vientiane is divided administratively into 9 cities with a total area of only approx. 3,920 square kilometres and is located on the banks of ...
.
Laos is a
one-party state
A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other partie ...
, with the
Lao People's Revolutionary Party
The Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The party's monopoly on state power is guaranteed by Article 3 of the Constitution of Laos, and it maintains a unitar ...
as the sole legal party in the country.
Most of the National Assembly's actions simply
rubber stamp
A rubber stamp is an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved or vulcanized onto a sheet of rubber. Rubber stamping, also called stamping, is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to rubbe ...
the party's decisions.
[ Efforts have been made to increase the capacity of its members, aiming to strengthen their legislative, oversight, and representational capacities.
]
History
The National Assembly was established in its current form by the Lao Constitution of 1991, replacing the Supreme People's Assembly (the latter also formerly known as the Supreme People's Council). After the December 1997 elections, the number of seats were increased to 99, a new structure was announced and Samane Vignaket
Samane Vignaket ( Lao: ສະໝານ ວິຍະເກດ; 3 March 1927 – 22 July 2016) was a Laotian politician and Lieutenant General, who served as the 1st President of the National Assembly of Laos from 1993 to 2006. A member of the Lao ...
was elected as its president.
The last elections were held on 21 February 2021. The Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) took 158 seats in the enlarged 164-member National Assembly while the six remaining seats went to independents.
In 2017, construction started on a new National Assembly building, gifted by Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...
. The construction was completed in 2021.
Committees
Parliamentary committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
s of the National Assembly currently include:National Assembly, 'Status and Roles of the Committees of the National Assembly'
*Law Committee
*Economic, Technology and Environment Committee
*Planning, Finance and Audit Committee
*Cultural and Social Committee
*Ethnic Affairs Committee
*National Defence and Security Committee
*Foreign Affairs Committee
Latest election
See also
*
List of presidents of the National Assembly of Laos
*
Parliament of the Kingdom of Laos
The Parliament of the Kingdom of Laos was the bicameral legislature of the Kingdom of Laos from 1947 to 1975. It consisted of the National Assembly, whose members were popularly elected, and the Royal Council, whose members were appointed by the ...
*
Politics of Laos
The politics of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (commonly known as Laos) takes place in the framework of a one-party parliamentary socialist republic. The only legal political party is the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). The head of ...
References
External links
*
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