One or two candidates for Vietnamese party general secretary post likely: report

Delegates to the ongoing 10th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) may be allowed to introduce one or two candidates for the post of the party's general secretary, local newspaper Youth reported Sunday.

"Those who are trusted by the congress will be nominated for the post of general secretary. The number of candidates may be one or two who receive the highest numbers of trust votes," the newspaper quoted Dao Duy Quat, the Commission on Ideological and Cultural Affairs under the CPV Central Committee, as saying.

Incumbent general secretary Nong Duc Manh, who is 66 years old, can be a candidate, Quat said, noting that there could be another candidate at younger age.

"Now, there are no specific regulations (about nomination for the post of general secretary). General aspiration is that there should not be only one candidate for the post. In my opinion, the ingoing CPV Central Committee (the 10th tenure) will decide it," he said.

The congress is scheduled to elect the CPV Central Committee with 160 official members and 25 alternate ones on Monday morning. The congress will introduce one or two candidates (the number of candidates yet to be decided), who are official members of the newly-elected committee, for the post of general secretary.

The newly-elected committee will hold its first meeting on Monday afternoon, during which it will elect the Political Bureau with expected 15-17 members, the Secretariat with 11 members, and the committee's Commission for Inspection and the commission's chairperson.

After the Political Bureau is elected, the CPV Central Committee (the 10th tenure) will, on Monday afternoon, elect the general secretary who is the bureau's member.

As a rule, after the party congress, the National Assembly of Vietnam, the country's highest legislative body, will re-elect a state president, a chairman of the National Assembly, a prime minister and cabinet members. However, Vietnam has yet to fix the date for the work, either in the 9th session of the National Assembly (the 11th tenure) in mid-May, or the 10th session in late 2006.

"Some people have proposed late 2006 as the date for electing a new government. Their reason is that Vietnam is preparing for hosting major international events, especially APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meetings, so the country needs experienced leaders," the newspaper quoted Quat as saying.

The eight-day congress, running from April 18 to 25, with the participation of 1,176 delegates, on behalf of 3.1 million party members in Vietnam, is to mainly elect the party's leadership board in the new tenure, define orientations for the country's socioeconomic development in the 2006-2010 period, and adopt the party's amended statute.

Source: Xinhua