Phoui Sananikone

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His Excellency Phoui Sananikone (Phagna Houakhong)
ຜຸຍ ຊະນະນິກອນ (ພຍາຫົວຂອງ)
Sananikone c.1950s
Prime Minister of Laos
In office 24 February 1950 – 15 October 1951
Monarch	Sisavang Vong
Preceded by	Boun Oum
Succeeded by	Sisavang Vatthana
In office 18 August 1958 – 31 December 1959
Monarchs	Sisavang Vong Sisavang Vatthana
Preceded by	Souvanna Phouma
Succeeded by	Sounthone Pathammavong (Acting)
President of the Lao National Assembly
In office 1947–1950
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Pao Panya
In office 1963–1965
Preceded by	Somsanith Vongkotrattana
Succeeded by	Oudom Sovanvong
In office 1968–1974
Preceded by	Oudom Sovanvong
Succeeded by	Souphanouvong (as President of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly)
Personal details
Born	6 September 1903[1] Vientiane, Kingdom of Luang Prabang, French Indochina
Died	4 December 1983 (1983-12-05) (aged 80) Paris, France
Political party	Independent Party Lao People's Rally
Spouse	Sida Sananikone

Phoui Sananikone (Lao: ຜຸຍ ຊະນະນິກອນ, pronounced [pʰǔj sa.na.ni.kɔːn]; 6 September 1903 – 4 December 1983) locally known as Phagna Houakhong (Lao: ພຍາຫົວຂອງ) was a Lao politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister (1950–1951 and 1958–1959)^[1] and first President of the Lao National Assembly. Since entering government service he had held virtually every top position in the Lao cabinet.^[2] The majority of his work as politician concerned the independence and sovereignty of Laos in Southeast Asia, especially in regards of the western-oriented neutrality policy during the height of the Indochina Wars.^[3]

Phoui Sananikone was born in Vientiane into one of the most prominent families in Laos, in a political, economic and social sense. He graduated from Pavie College in 1923 before entered the colonial civil service as secretary in the Résidence supérieure in Laos. A remarkable career followed. After his outstanding performance, where he scored the highest mark in competitive tests similar to American civil service examinations, he was appointed a district administrator. Then in 1941 he was appointed Governor (Chao Khoueng) of the Province Houakhong (known as Haut Mékong or Luang Namtha province) and later reached the highest administrative hierarchy with the rank of Chao Khoueng Special Class.^[4]

His political career began during the troubled post-war years in January 1947 as Minister of Education, Health and Social Welfare in the Royal Lao Government, where he was elected representative of Pakse and became the first president of the Lao National Assembly the same year.^[4] He took part in negotiating preceding the signature of the Franco-Lao General Convention of 1949 by which Laos became an Associated State of Indochina within the French Union. He was re-elected as president until 1950, where he resigned from his post after the Lao King Sisavang Vong commissioned him to form a cabinet. In this capacity, as Prime Minister and Defense Minister, he headed the Lao Delegation to the Pau Conference in June 1950. It was during that Year, where he and other former Lao Issara members founded the Independent Party, who later merged with the Nationalist party to win the election, where he became elected Prime Minister in his second term in August 1958.