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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
With the LPF's deputies in prison, the political scene
became
increasingly chaotic, even lawless. When Phoui's mandate
ended in
December 1959, Phoumi Nosavan and his CDNI supporters
began their
move to force the king to grant them power by announcing
that the
supreme command of the armed forces was "handling current
affairs."
Their move, however, was too bold and caused the Western
ambassadors in Vientiane to present a united front to the
king in
support of constitutionality. An interim government headed
by Kou
Abhay was charged with preparing for new elections.
Phoumi,
temporarily rebuffed, bided his time as minister of
defense. The
army had entered politics but not quite in the manner
Washington
had hoped.
In the April 24, 1960, elections, Phoumi found his
revenge. By
exerting considerable pressure, he had changes made in the
electoral law. With financial support from Marshal Sarit
Thanarat
of Thailand, Phoumi bought off strong or inconvenient
candidates
and enlisted civil servants as his campaign workers.
Election
balloting was fraudulent, and the results, giving rightist
candidates large majorities, were totally unbelievable. A
new
government was formed on June 3, ostensibly headed by
Somsanith but
in fact controlled by Phoumi acting as minister of defense
under
the aegis of his new political party, the Social Party
(Paxa
Sangkhom). Souvanna Phouma, elected without fraud, became
the
president of the National Assembly. The imprisoned LPF
deputies had
not been allowed to run for the Assembly, but sent word to
LPF
supporters to vote for any LPF candidates who had dared
run or else
to vote for Peace Party candidates. However, on May 23,
under
darkness and with the cooperation of personnel at their
prison, the
LPF deputies escaped and disappeared into the countryside.
Data as of July 1994
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