Ensuring implementation of election principles in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Abstract

Election principles are the guiding ideologies in organizing elections, which are important in the countries electoral laws. In the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), election principles have been stipulated in the Constitution and specified in the electoral law. Although the implementation of these principles is serious and effective in practice, it also shows that adjustments in legal regulations on some principles are necessary to ensure increasingly productive and substantive elections in the Lao PDR. This article analyzes the legal regulations on election principles and their implementation in the Lao PDR, points out the strengths and limitations, thereby proposing several solutions to amend and supplement the electoral law to overcome those limitations.