Vietnam: Day of democracy in communist Vietnam in vote on party’s parliament | Reuters

Vietnam will showcase its five-yearly day of democracy on Sunday with an election for a parliament tightly controlled by a Communist Party that is seeing unprecedented challenges to its four-decade political monopoly. Some 69 million Vietnamese are registered to vote to choose representatives for a 500-seat National Assembly, with the ballot comprised overwhelmingly of candidates representing the secretive party or nominated by state institutions. The election could turn out to be an anti-climax, after an astonishing swell of public interest in the scores of activists, celebrities and ordinary Vietnamese who tried to run as independent candidates, and it could test the sincerity of the party’s promises of inclusiveness. Almost all of the hopeful independents could not get on the ballot and were eliminated during the party’s strict vetting processes, which many of them said was rigged to shut them out.

Vietnam: Officials to study needed constitutional amendments | Asean Inter Parliamentary Assembly

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday asked relevant ministries, agencies and localities to comprehensively review the implementation of the 1992 Constitution so that appropriate amendments could be made to it.

Phuc stressed the need to mobilise the whole political system including legal bodies and central-run agencies so that more practical ideas could be put forward at the first meeting of the steering committee for the implementation of the 1992 Constitution. He instructed officials to review the Constitution’s implementation on both ideological and practical basis.

Vietnam: Election Council pronounces May polls resounding success | Viet Nam News

The draft review report on elections for the 13th National Assembly (NA) and local People’s Councils showed that voting proceeded legitimately and democratically. General Secretary of the Election Council Pham Minh Tuyen reported yesterday that 99.51 per cent of voters or over 61 million citizens, turned out for the May 22nd election.

At a meeting in Ha Noi yesterday, Tuyen said 500 NA deputies and 302,648 People’s Council members had been selected.

Vietnam: Over 300,000 selected for Vietnamese People’s Councils | Viet Nam News

The nation selected 302,648 members for People’s Councils at all levels for the 2011-16 term, reported the Ministry of Home Affairs at a conference in Ha Noi yesterday to review the parliamentary election.

Just 3,843 candidates failed to win seats, according to Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Tran Huu Thang. Of those elected, 3,822 will sit on provincial People’s Councils, over 21,000 on councils at district level and 277,740 at commune’s level.

During the election, which took place on May 22, 500 National Assembly deputies were also elected. The result was announced earlier.

Vietnam: Impressive Election Day in Vietnam | VOVNEWS.VN

Last weekend Vietnam held general elections for its National Assembly (NA) and all levels of People’s Councils. Such elections are held every five years but this year’s elections were particularly significant because it was the first time the NA and People’s Councils were elected simultaneously.

… Electronic voting has not yet appeared in Vietnam and the ballots are still counted by hand, similar to the way I voted in the small town where I lived in the USA. While this method may take longer to count and ostensibly have greater potential for human error, it does avoid fiascos like the infamous “dangling chads” of the US 2000 presidential elections.