The 15th Plenum of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) began to take place in Hanoi on January 16, and the candidates for the four highest posts (Four Pillars) were nominated for the official election of the 13th National Congress.
On the eve of the 13th Congress, exciting developments with many quiet, secret campaigns by politicians of the party have been going on drastically to the last minute.
Prior to the 15th Plenum, confidence polls for “special cases” over 65 years old for Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, and Tran Quoc Vuong were sent by letter to members of the CPV’s Central Committee across the country.
In the polls were arranged from top to bottom and in order, Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong, who ranked himself in two positions of General Secretary and President, after revoking the postal polls sent back to the. Office of the Central Committee, on January 9, the Politburo had a meeting and discussed the results of the polls.
In the survey for the general secretary, Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong got 60% and 30% voted for the state president post. And Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc got the second-highest vote. Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan lost to Nguyen Xuan Phuc with a close rate of 2%, ranked fourth is Mr. Tran Quoc Vuong.
Based on the results, Politburo decided that Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong and Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc the two “special cases” having the highest votes, could stay in the 13th term. Next, the Politburo discussed to give two more individuals for the remaining two seats, namely Mr. Pham Minh Chinh and Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue. That was the first round result.
In the second round is the 15th Plenum of the Central Conference, on January 16, its members voted for the four individuals, Nguyen Xuan Phuc has the highest vote of more than 95% and Pham Minh Chinh and Vuong Dinh Hue were also over 90%, which is very high. Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong got the lowest of 82%, but over the requirement of 50%. With Mr. Trong’s old age and weakness, the rate of votes of 82% is also successful for him.
According to the process, in the first session of the 13th National Congress, the participants will vote to amend the party’s charter to approve for Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong to stay, because Mr. Trong has 2 terms already while the charter states that the maximum number of terms for the general secretary is 2. At present, the party does not know whether to amend it or not. In addition, many opinions from the Commission for Propaganda and Education said that it should not be amended because it is dangerous to amend the charter, if it is changed, after Mr. Trong, another person will want to sit in the general secretary post until death, so just vote for Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong.
Given the high result of the second round, the vote for Mr. Trong is expected to be not low.
Le Trung Khoa – Thoibao.de
