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Vietnam: 76-year-old Communist Party chief nominated for re-election

Phu Trong's protege Tran Quoc Vuong failed to garner enough support

VIETNAM-POLITICS/CONGRESS Vietnam Communist Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong | Reuters

Vietnam's ruling Communist Party and its leader Nguyen Phu Trong hailed the nation's booming economic development and effective containment of the coronavirus pandemic as the party's main achievement on Tuesday. Phu Trong presided over the opening of a key party congress in Hanoi, Reuters reported. Phu Trong, the party's 76-year-old leader and the architect of the country's anti-corruption campaign has been nominated to serve a rare third term, the state media reported. 

Monday marked the start of a series of nine-day, behind-the-door meetings involving over 1,600 party delegates at a congress that takes place every five years. 

Phu Trong's protege Tran Quoc Vuong failed to garner enough support to replace the party chief. 

Phu Trong is favoured to lead the party despite old age and health troubles. The Party Charter reads that members of the Central committee up for re-election must not be above 60 and Politburo members must be under the age of 65. Ascent to the highest level of leadership in Vietnamese politics is a highly secretive process governed by party regulations and revolves around building consensus and vying for control of the powerful, decision-making Politburo. Exceptions are granted in case a consensus on the top candidates cannot be reached. 

Trong will be the longest-serving General Secretary since Le Duan, the leader who took control after the death of Vietnam's founding revolutionary Ho Chi Minh in 1969 and stayed in power till 1984. 

A third nomination makes Trong very powerful and means a hindrance to the party's collective leadership norm that the party has always been following. Trong, who has spearheaded a crackdown against corruption is being called a 'blazing furnace'. 

Thanks to the strict quarantine measures imposed by the country, testing and tracing, Vietnam has so far reported just 1,500 cases of the coronavirus and 35 deaths in total. It was however reported that around 10,000 people tested positive for the virus ahead of the Politburo meeting. 

Amnesty International said the Vietnamese authorities' intolerance to peaceful dissent has peaked. On January 18, the Communist Party's leadership stepped up its crackdown on dissent, making rights groups and activists wonder if Vietnam has breached the spirit of the trade deal with western nations, that called for bolstering environmental protection and human rights. 

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