HANOI (AFP) – Vietnam’s national assembly will start the process of choosing a president today, a senior official said, after a series of leadership changeovers threw the communist state into an unusual period of political upheaval.
For decades in Vietnam, all changes were carefully orchestrated with an emphasis on stability.
But a major anti-graft purge since 2021 swept up several high-level figures, including two presidents and three deputy prime ministers.
The country’s four-pillar leadership structure includes the general secretary, president, prime minister and head of the National Assembly.
Current President To Lam was named general secretary of the Communist Party – Vietnam’s top leader – in August following the death of his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong.
Trong held both positions at the same time between October 2018 and April 2021.
