Vietnam goes to the polls
Vietnamese citizens have voted for a new national assembly in a five-yearly election that will bring new faces to the legislature while maintaining the Communist Party's grip on power.
More than 50 million eligible voters out of Vietnam's 84 million people were due to elect 500 new deputies from a field of 875 hopefuls – including 150 who are not members of the ruling party and 30 self-nominated candidates.
Vietnam has said it wants to broaden public participation in the assembly, but ultimately about 90 percent of seats are guaranteed to go to the party, whose affiliate the Fatherland Front also screened all other candidates.
Final results are expected within seven to 10 days after voting.
Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh was among the first to cast his ballot, in Hanoi's government district of Ba Dinh, as propaganda messages starting at 6:00 am urged people to come out quickly and vote as required by law.
"Go to the polls and express the will and the aspirations of the people," said a typical loudspeaker message echoing through the streets of the capital.
"Electing a new and good national assembly serves our cause of industrialisation and modernisation of the country because deputies will be the bridge between the national assembly and the people."
The legislature has changed in recent years from being a purely rubber-stamp body into a debating forum that has occasionally grilled top officials in sessions broadcast on national television.
Deputies have complained loudly of corruption and passed laws that bring the country in line with the rules of the World Trade Organisation which Vietnam, a low-income but rapidly growing economy, joined early this year.
Mr Manh said the 12th assembly's task would be to push forward reforms with the aim of "bringing Vietnam out of the list of less developed countries by 2010 and becoming a modern industrialised country by 2020."
Vietnam's leaders have made clear that they will tolerate no open challenge to the sole rule of the party which has dominated public life in unified Vietnam since the end of the "American War" in 1975.
In recent months, Vietnam has tried and jailed several political dissidents who had urged an election boycott or called for a multi-party political system, triggering protests from the United States and European Union.
In Sunday's election, no controversial candidates were likely to be elected as all of them had to gain the support of their workplaces and neighbourhoods, which have their own party cells, as well as the Fatherland Front.
Meanwhile, women, ethnic minorities and key institutions such as the police, army and farmers' unions are all guaranteed blocks of seats in advance.
Vietnam expert Carl Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy said that although more non-party members and self-nominated candidates were running than in the past, the elections "remain a highly contrived affair."
"Central authorities determine in advance the ideal structure and composition of the National Assembly," he said.
In the run-up to the poll, the leadership urged citizens to hoist the national flag. On Sunday public loud-speakers started playing patriotic songs at dawn, also hailing late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh.
Official turnout was expected to top 90 percent, as in the 2002 vote.
In an election where there is no doubt about which party will win, the contest is often between wards who compete to be first to finish voting.
At the polling stations, heads of families often cast proxy votes for their relatives, typically with a choice to elect three deputies from five candidates, whose pictures and brief CVs were provided at polling booths.
"I saw that most people casting their ballots are older people," complained one 78-year-old retiree in Hanoi. "They vote for the whole family. It seems that the young voters are lazy."
Agence France Presse - May 21, 2007.
Vietnam elects assembly members
HANOI - Voters went to the polls Sunday to elect new members to Vietnam's National Assembly - a body with a growing influence over government policy - in a Communist Party-controlled election.
Once considered a rubber-stamp for the executive branch, the 500-member National Assembly has started to assert itself more in recent years. Its members have begun aggressively questioning government ministers, and they carefully review drafts of laws submitted by government agencies.
The assembly has made a priority of cracking down on corruption, which is widespread in Vietnam.
Eighty-three percent of the candidates are party members and all the nonparty candidates have been screened by the Fatherland Front, a powerful party umbrella organization.
Although 30 self-nominated candidates are running, no other political parties are allowed to participate.
``The National Assembly is increasingly exerting its influence over government policy,'' said Jonathan Pincus, chief economist with the United Nations Development Program in Hanoi. ``But the election itself is not an important milestone in the process of political change.''
Despite gains being made by the assembly, the center of power in Vietnam remains with the executive branch, which the Communist Party controls.
Hanoi voter Truong Van Truong, 60, said he hoped the new assembly would take tougher steps to curb corruption.
``Authorities have talked a lot about the fight against corruption,'' Truong said, after casting his ballot. ``We want to see deeds, not words.''
Voters in each assembly district choose two to three candidates from four to five on their ballot. Voting is mandatory, so turnout is generally high.
But family members often cast ballots on one another's behalf, so many voters participate without going to the polls.
``I have never voted in my life,'' said Nguyen Hoang Yen, 36, of Hanoi. ``Usually my father goes to vote for the four people in my family.''
While many ordinary citizens seem more focused on work and family than politics, the government has been doing its best to get them interested.
The streets of Hanoi have been adorned with red flags and banners exhorting voters to select candidates with ``good morals and talent'' and reminding them that voting is ``the right and responsibility of each citizen.''
During the past few weeks, people have been awakened by loudspeakers blaring patriotic songs and announcers reading candidate biographies.
This is Vietnam's 12th National Assembly election; members serve five-year terms.
Ninety percent of the current assembly seats are occupied by Communist Party members. Authorities have said they want nonparty members to occupy more than 10 percent of the new assembly.
Initially, 238 ``self-nominated'' candidates - those not officially endorsed by the Communist Party - sought to run.
But all candidates had to go through three rounds of screening by the party's Fatherland Front. Only 30 of them made it through the screening process.
The Associated Press - May 20, 2007.
Vietnam statistics show elections enjoy 99 % turnout rate
Statistics show that some electorate districts in Vietnam saw 100 percent of their voters cast ballots Sunday in a nationwide election for parliament members.
According to the Election Council, 100 percent of residents eligible to vote in at least four provinces: Tra Vinh, Vinh Long, Hau Giang and Soc Trang, all in the southern Mekong River Delta, cast the ballots for the 12th National Assembly election.
Citizens over 18 are eligible to vote in Vietnam.
In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, around 98 percent of eligible residents voted, the council said.
Pham The Duyet, chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, an umbrella group of all social and political organizations, told Thanh Nien that despite rains in some places, the people still went to the polls to “exercise their rights and duty”.
Duyet added that the election went smoothly and that voters demonstrated their “seriousness and high responsibility” in choosing the right candidates.
He said this election has been prepared carefully and that all candidates have met strict requirements.
He added “this election marks a marked leap in democracy” in that the proportion of would-be winners to losers is lower than before, leaving voters a wide selection.
Whereas in the past, there were about three winners out of four candidates, now there will be only two winners out of four or three winners out of six candidates, he explained.
This election is to choose 500 deputies for the 12th National Assembly from 875 candidates including 30 self-nominated ones [i.e not nominated by communist and state agencies].
A number of military units and oil and gas workers also cast their votes earlier than the official Election Day - Sunday.
Paper ballots are used and will be counted by hand. Results will be announced within 15 days except in case of reelections.
Thanh Nien - May 20, 2007.
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