Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: Does Laos have a president?
The current president is Bounnhang Vorachit, since 20 April 2016. He is also the General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, making him ranked first in the Politburo hierarchy.
The president represents Laos internally and externally, supervises the work as well as preserving the stability of the national governmental system and safeguards the independence and territorial integrity of the country. The President appoints the prime minister, vice president, ministers and other officials with the consent of the National Assembly.
Lao Prime Ministers Bounnhang Vorachith, Bouasone Bouphavanh and Thongsing Thammavong made their state visit to the Philippines in 2002, June 2007 and May 2012 respectively. Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos visited Laos in October 1997. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited Laos in November 2004 for the ASEAN summit and President Benigno Aquino III visited Laos in November 2012 for the Asia-Europe Meeting Summit. President Rodrigo Duterte visited Laos in September 2016, his first international trip as president, to attend the 48th and 49th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summits and the Eleventh East Asia Summit.
The ULDL and its President Bounthanh Rathigna have provided information to and urged the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to investigate ongoing religious persecution and religious freedom violations in Laos and to officially designated Laos as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). In 2003, Laotian- and Hmong-Americans lauded the USCIRF's efforts in officially designating Laos as a CPC violator of international norms of religious freedom for its persecution of independent and dissident Lao and Hmong Christians, Catholic, Animist and Buddhist religious believers.
The office of the President of the People's Democratic Republic traces its lineage back to Prince Souphanouvong, the first President of the People's Democratic Republic, a member of the deposed royal family, who became President when the former Kingdom of Laos was overthrow by the Pathet Lao in 1975, at the end of the Laotian Civil War.
While homosexuality is legal in Laos, it is very difficult to assess the current state of acceptance and violence that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) citizens face, because the government does not allow those who are not associated with the government to conduct polls on human rights. Numerous claims have suggested that Laos is one of the most tolerant communist states at the current time, with a growing acceptance of homosexuality. Despite such progress, discrimination still exists.
During the summer of 2016, in anticipation of President Barack Obama's September visit to Laos for the ASEAN summit, Legacies ran a campaign to raise awareness surrounding the UXO issue based on President Barack Obama’s September visit to Laos for the ASEAN summit. President Obama’s visit was the first by a sitting US President to Laos. While speaking in Laos, Obama directly acknowledged the Legacies of War founder, Channapha Khamvongsa, for her work to “fix this problem”. In the same speech, Obama made a pledge to increase U.S. funding to $30 million a year for 2016, 2017, and 2018, for the cleanup of UXO in Laos. 
Time in Laos is given by Indochina Time (ICT) (). Laos does not currently observe daylight saving time.
Laos does not recognize same-sex marriages, nor any other form of same-sex union. There have been no known debates of such unions being legalized in the near future, though this does not imply that the government or Laotians are opposed to such unions—the topic has simply yet to come up for debate.
The flag of Laos consists of three horizontal stripes, with the middle stripe in blue being twice the height of the top and bottom red stripes. In the middle is a white disc, the diameter of the disc is the height of the blue stripe. The flag ratio is 2:3. The national flag of Laos was first adopted in 1945 under the short-lived Lao Issara government of 1945–46, then by the Pathet Lao. It is one of the two flags of a currently communist country (the other being Cuba) that does not use any communist symbolism and the only current communist country that does not use a five-pointed star in its flag as an emblem. The current flag was adopted on December 2, 1975 when it became a socialist state.
Vice President of Laos is the political position in Laos created in 1996. The Vice President is elected by the National Assembly of Laos.
Lao Prime Ministers Bounnhang Vorachith, Bouasone Bouphavanh and Thongsing Thammavong made their state visit to the Philippines in 2002, June 2007 and May 2012 respectively. Philippine Presidents Fidel V. Ramos visited Laos in October 1997. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited Laos in November 2004 for the ASEAN summit and Philippine President Benigno Aquino III visited Laos in November 2012 for the Asia-Europe Meeting Summit.
That changed, however, with the publication of the "Pentagon Papers", which disclosed the earliest stages of "Yankee Team", "Barrel Roll", and the Thai commitment. President Richard M. Nixon was eventually forced to disclose the extent of U.S. participation, which further weakened ability of the U.S. to respond to the increasing PAVN and Pathet Lao threat. The spring of 1972 was not a happy one in either Washington D.C. or Vientiane. A U.S. Congressional delegation, after investigating the situation on the ground in Laos, reported that "No one we met in Laos, American or Lao, seemed to have any prescription for the future other than to continue what's being done now."
The President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic is the head of state of Laos.
Sisavath Keobounphanh (Lao: ສີສະຫວາດ ແກ້ວບຸນພັນ; born 1 May 1928) was Vice President of Laos from 1996 to 1998 and third Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) of Laos from 1998 to 2000. He was succeeded by Bounnhang Vorachith. He is a member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and was President of the Lao Front for National Construction from 2001 to 2011, when he was succeeded by Phandoungchit Vongsa.
List of monarchs of Laos Prime Minister of Laos
Western Lao does not occur in Laos, but can be found in Kalasin, Maha Sarakham, and Roi Et Provinces.The original written language of Isan was known as "Akson Tai Noy" (อักษรไทน้อย , cf. Lao ອັກສອນໄທນ້ອຽ/Archaic ອັກສອນໄທນ້ຽ, "Aksone Tai Noy"), the 'Little Tai alphabet' or "To Lao" (โตลาว , cf. Lao ໂຕລາວ, modern Isan "Tua Lao" ตัวลาว , cf. modern Lao "Toua Lao" ຕົວລາວ), 'Lao letters.' In Laos, the older variety of the alphabet is generally known as "Aksone Lao Deum" (ອັກສອນລາວເດີມ , cf. Isan อักษรลาวเดิม), 'original Lao alphabet.' The original spelling conventions and letter shapes were more or less preserved in the modern Lao alphabet, its direct descendant. Both the Tai Noy—and its modern descendant—and the Thai alphabet both developed from early Tai scripts adapted from the Khmer script, with influences from Mon.
In recent decades women have made notable inroads into politics. In 1997, Onechanh Thammavong became one of the vice-presidents of the National Assembly of Laos. In March 2011, the National Assembly provided a seminar for forty-seven female candidates in advance of the 7th Lao general elections in April 2011, in order to instil the “significant duties of the national legislature body” in the women.
The communist party retains a monopoly of political power, but leaves the operation of the economy to market forces, and does not interfere in the daily lives of the Lao people provided they do not challenge its rule. Attempts to police the religious, cultural, economic and sexual activities of the people have been largely abandoned, although Christian evangelism is officially discouraged. The media is state controlled, but most Lao have free access to Thai radio and television (Thai and Lao are mutually comprehensible languages), which gives them news from the outside world.
On 3 day India visit of Laos President Choummaly Sayasone in 2008, India decided to establish an "Air Force Academy" in Laos. India also gifted 50 parachutes to "Lao Defence Forces" on its 60th anniversary in 2009. India held its Surya Kiran air show at Laos.
The term "Laotian" does not necessarily refer to the Lao language, ethnic Lao people, language or customs. It is a political term that includes the non-ethnic Lao groups within Laos and identifies them as "Laotian" because of their political citizenship. Laos has the youngest population of any country in Asia with a median age of 21.6 years.
Isan speakers, similar to Lao speakers in Laos, often pronounce consonantal 'ว' at the start of syllables as , a sound which does not exist in Thai, where the sound is . In Laos, the Lao letter 'ວ' is often pronounced . This trait is considered provincial in Thailand as it deviates from the standard language, but in Laos, the pronunciation is common, but historically was the mark of erudition or nobility. There is no difference in spelling, as this variation is an allophone of , but it is the more common pronunciation overall in Isan and Laos.
The Royal Lao Government in Exile claims that it is an interim democratic government consisting of eighty representatives from Lao political organizations and associations elected by the Lao people inside Laos and abroad. The Royal Lao Government in Exile is chaired by Professor Khamphoui Sisavatdy, who claims to have previously served in the former Royal Lao Government under H.M. King Savang Vatthana of Laos as a Deputy in the National Assembly and was a Professor of Lao History at Sisavangvong University. In 1972, he traveled to the United States with a Lao delegation to speak to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger concerning a series of proposed Geneva Convention treaties.
The Supreme National Political Council in Exile is reportedly chaired by H.E. Phraya Sithidej (Sithat Sithibourn), former Lao Governor, former Lao Congressman and former President of Political and Law Commission of the Lao National Parliament.
The head of state is the commander-in-chief of the Lao People's Army. Since Laos is a one-party state, with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party being the sole party allowed by the constitution, all the presidents of the People's Democratic Republic have been members of the party while holding office.
In August 1950 the communists established a "front" organisation, the Free Laos Front (Naeo Lao Issara), under the presidency of Suphānuvong. This in turn formed a "Resistance Government of the Lao Homeland." The phrase Pathēt Lao ("Lao Homeland") thus became established as the general name of the Lao communist movement until 1975. The communists shrewdly promoted representatives of the upland ethnic minorities to leadership positions in the Free Laos Front. These included Faidāng Lôbliayao, a leader of the Hmong people of the north, and Sīthon Kommadam, son of the southern rebel Ong Kommadam and a leader of the southern Lao-Thoeng.
Since the communist base areas were mainly inhabited by ethnic minority peoples, this helped consolidate support in these areas. But the communist leadership remained firmly in Lao-Lum hands. When in 1955 a separate Lao communist party was created (the Lao People's Revolutionary Party or Phak Paxāxon Lao), with Kaisôn as General Secretary and Nūhak as his deputy, all the members of the Politburo were Lao-Lum.