HANOI: Vietnam lawmakers on Tuesday elected as president Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, the only candidate on the ballot, making him the most powerful man in the country where consensus leadership has traditionally kept strongman rule in check.
Trong was ushered into his new role as head-of-state with 99.8 percent of the vote from Vietnam’s rubber stamp parliament members a month after the former president died from a prolonged illness.
Though the president’s role is seen as largely ceremonial, 74-year-old Trong
will maintain his position as party head — the first person to hold both roles since revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh in the late 1960s. His new position was cemented in a tightly orchestrated swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday after an overwhelming vote from 477 lawmakers, with only one vote against, according to the government’s website.
“I, president of Vietnam, vow to be completely loyal to the nation, people and constitution,” Trong said at the ceremony, speaking beneath a large bust of Ho Chi Minh.
His election comes as no surprise after the Communist Party’s Central Committee put his name forward as the only contender last month following the death of Tran Dai Quang, a former police chief who had been president since 2016.
Trong’s dual role in two of the so-called “four-pillar” top leadership positions allows him to yield a huge amount of power in the government whose inner workings are often shielded from the public.
The two other “pillars” are the prime minister and National Assembly chair.
His appointment is not likely to shake up politics in the one-party state, though observers have said it will eliminate any potential opposition to an anti-corruption campaign that he has spearheaded since his re-election as party chief in 2016.
The campaign has seen dozens of top officials, executives and bankers put behind bars, many seen as Trong’s political foes because of their perceived alliance to former prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung who was sidelined in the last leadership shuffle two years ago. — AFP
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