Vietnam opens party meeting to elect new president

Vietnam on Wednesday opened a 12-day National Assembly meeting to see the Communist Party vote to elect key leadership positions including a new president, prime minister and senate president.

During the extensive session, the party will elect a total of 25 key leadership roles, spokesperson Nguyen Hanh Phuc said in a statement.

Incumbent Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has been nominated for the largely ceremonial position of president, while Pham Minh Chinh, head of the Communist Party’s powerful Central Organisation Commission, has been proposed for Prime Minister.

Although yet to be formally announced, Vuong Dinh Hue, the party chief of Hanoi, is widely tipped to be nominated as the next head of the National Assembly, Vietnam’s principal legislative body.

During Vietnam’s 13th National Party Congress, which concluded in early February, the incumbent General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, was elected to stay in power for an unprecedented third term.

Trong had also held the role of president since the death of former leader Tran Dai Quang in 2018, but will not continue to hold both roles over the next five-year term.

Shortly before the session’s official opening, party members paid a visit to the mausoleum of Vietnam’s founding revolutionary Ho Chi Minh.

The new leadership positions for National Assembly chair, president and prime minister will be announced on March 31, April 1, and April 4, respectively.