Vietnam parliament to appoint new president this week

• Vietnam’s National Assembly will hold an extraordinary meeting this week (27 Feb – 3 Mar), a session that officials and diplomats expect to confirm the appointment of a new president amid a leadership reshuffle prompted by a sweeping crackdown on graft.
• Multiple officials and diplomats said the new president, a largely ceremonial role, would be Vo Van Thuong, who, at 52, is currently the youngest member of the party’s Politburo, the country’s highest decision-making body.
• His appointment comes amid an anti-corruption campaign, dubbed the “blazing furnace”, under which hundreds of officials have been investigated and many top political figures have been dismissed, including two deputy prime ministers.
• Thuong is seen as being close to Vietnam’s most powerful figure, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who is the main architect of the anti-graft campaign.
• The president in Vietnam is among the top four political figures in the country, together with the party’s general secretary, the prime minister and the head of the national assembly.
• Parliament will hold an out-of-session meeting this week (27 Feb – 3 Mar), according to information posted on the portals of the local governments of the southern provinces of Khanh Hoa and Binh Phuoc. The latter said the extraordinary session would start on 1 Mar.

External Link : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/vietnam-parliament-appoint-new-president-this-week-sources-2023-02-27/