Thayer Consultancy Background Brief

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Vietnam: Procedures for
Selecting the Next State
President
October 3, 2018

Charlie Campbell, East Asia Correspondent, TIMEAsia:

When do you think a decision on the new President might be made, whether Nguyen
Phu Trong or someone else? Some say it would be decided at this month’s National
Assembly. Do you think that’s likely?
ANSWER: The Vietnam Communist Party Central Committee is meeting at its eighth
plenum from October 2-6. It will approve the nominee for state president. The
National Assembly will convene on October 22. During this session the Chair of the
Standing Committee will put the candidate’s name before deputies. They will vote the
new president into office.
The normal procedure is for the Politburo to select a candidate and obtain the
approval of the Central Committee. The nominee is then put before the National
Assembly for a vote. This time the Politburo appears to have solicited its members to
put their names forward for presentation to the Central Committee. This is the tenor
of Vietnamese media reports I have read. The Vietnamese press refers to an August
2017 party regulation that sets out the criteria that a candidate for the office of state
president must meet.
Here is a rough translation of an article published in VNExpress on September 30th
(https://vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/thoi-su/tieu-chuan-chuc-danh-chu-tich-nuoc-duoc-
quy-dinh-nhu-the-nao-3816956.html):
Regarding the criteria for the position of the State President, the candidate must fully
meet the general standards of a member of the Politburo or the Secretariat and at the
same time have the qualities and capabilities, such as: solidarity on the Central
Committee, Politburo and throughout the Party.
The criterion for President also requires the standard of "outstanding and
comprehensive capabilities” in all aspects of work, especially in domestic, foreign,
security and defense fields. The office of president is a center of solidarity between
social forces and ethnic communities in and outside the country, decisive leadership
and management according to their functions, tasks and assigned powers.
According to the regulation, the candidate selected to become the President is
required to have experience and outstanding performance as provincial party chief,
municipal party chief or party chief of any central committee, ministry, or industry.
The candidate needs to have at least a full tenure in the Political Bureau of the
 2

Communist Party of Vietnam. The Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee

decides on special cases, if any [emphasis added].
Acting President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh is a member of the Central Committee. The 12th
Politburo has 17 members, of which 11 new members have joined since the beginning
of this term.
My assumption is that Dinh The Huynh is included among the 17 members of the
Politburo mention in the above article. Huynh may be excluded as a possible candidate
on the grounds of ill health. Eleven other member of the Politburo have not served a
full five-year term. They were elected in January 2016 and the twelfth and most recent
national party congress. That leaves only six qualified persons who have already
completed a full term on the Politburo. The list is in order of seniority on the Politburo:
 Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong
 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc,
 Chairman of the National Assembly and its Standing Committee Nguyen Thi
Kim Ngan
 Ngo Xuan Lich Minister of National Defence
 Nguyen Thien Ngan, party secretary Ho Chi Minh City, and
 Tong Thi Phong Deputy Chair of the National Assembly
There is the possibility that a special case could be nominated.
The Chair of the National Assembly Standing Committee is responsible for putting the
candidate for president’s name before the National Assembly for election.

Suggested citation: Carlyle A. Thayer, “Vietnam: Procedures for Selecting the Next
State President,” Thayer Consultancy Background Brief, October 3, 2018. All
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