Official insists independent candidates for the NA should not face discrimination

Self-nominateds candidates for the National Assembly should receive fair treatment and any act of discrimination against them is against the law, an official said.

In an interview with the Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Vu Trong Kim said that there have been an increasing number of self-nominated candidates wanting to stand in the approaching general election which will elect deputies to the National Assembly.

A meeting of the National Assembly

"This is a good sign and is an example of democracy," Kim said. "They schould receive fair treatment and any act of discrimination against self-nominated candidates is against the law.”

The National Assembly is Vietnam’s legislative body, whose 500 members are elected every five years via a national election.

The election of members of the 14th National Assembly is scheduled for May 22 this year.

Independent members of the assembly have long been outnumbered by those nominated by organisations, with the current term having only 42 independent members compared to 458 party affiliates. This time, however, there are over 100 independent people, with the number of self-nominations in Hanoi and HCM City outnumbering those put forward by organisations.

This can be seen as a positive sign as it shows people's sense of responsibility and self-confidence, and promotes democracy based on the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Resolution 12 passed at the recent congress.

Obviously the best people should stand for election. But the Election Council has not always made the right choices. There have been some elected candidates that were found to lied in their CVs or faced criminal charges.

Nguyen Khoa Diem- former member of politburo, head of the Party Central Committee's Ideology and Culture Commission, once asked, "Who thought this deputy was a good choice? who voted for this deputy?"

In the current election system, the electorate aren’t necessarily clear about the CV and motivation of a candidate. Many voters just trust in the nominations from organisations when choosing a candidate.

Answering questions in the HCM City Law Newspaper regarding self-nominations for the approaching general election, Nguyen Van Pha, vice chairman of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front which is in charge of approving nominations, said that all nominees, whether self-nominated or nominated by their affiliation, had equal opportunities in the election.

“Favouring candidates nominated by certain affiliations is strictly forbidden," Pha noted.