NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTION

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To implement a decision by the Vietnam Communist Party 9^th Congress in April 2001 and directives by the Politburo, the party and its government organizations at each level are busy working for the election of Hanoi 11^th National Assembly. The election date will be on Sunday, May 19, 2002, the (faked) birthday of the late Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.

The 10^th National Assembly has just concluded its last session this week. Its standing committee is in charge of conducting the election. All major political and administrative agencies of the party and its government are ordered to concentrate their efforts to the preparation for the May 19 election. This could be a major event as the Communist regime is facing problems that may result in serious instability.

The First National Assembly of the Communist regime in Vietnam was founded by the Jan 6, 1946 general election. Ho Chi Minh and his Communist Party seized power on August 19, 1945, and quickly established the despotic regime. To calm down the nationalist side for the first few months to save time to consolidate his ruling power, he agreed to hold the national assembly election.

There were a large number out of 403 seats were taken by nationalist parties members and non-Communist neutral candidates. The non-Communist bloc of the First NA would have made many changes to the drafted Constitution, one of which was selecting the new national banner and anthem to replace the yellow-star-on- red and the Tien Quan Ca (Song of the Advancing Soldiers) because both were only the colors and song of a party, the Communist. But before the Constitution was formally passed on 9 November 1946, the Viet Minh “cleansing campaign had purged a great number of deputies

The bloody massacres to get rid of nationalist prominent revolutionaries from 1946 to 1948 broke the First NA apart. More than 200, mostly non-Communist deputies were assassinated, imprisoned or simply fled to the French-controlled areas. Actually, the First NA was staying inoperative during the war (1946- 1954).

A small number of the deputies were convened to do rubberstamp duty to pass some laws that the Party needed to implement some very important policies. Those included the Land Reform Law in 1953 that served as a legal foundation for the bloody Land Reform campaign in 1955 and 1956. But no laws vital to a democratic state and its people such as the Criminal or Civil codes were enacted before 1985. The 7th NA passed the first Criminal Law of the Communist regime that year.

In October 1954, the Communist government assumed power over the northern half of Vietnam above the 17^th Parallel. Its NA with less than 50 percent of the original 403 deputies continued its role to pave the way for a Communist regime. It approved the 2^nd Constitution of the so-called Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 31 December 1959. Since then, the Communist Party has overtly imposed total control of the Party on the NA.

The Second Legislature began its term in 1960 to 1964, the most important era of the North Vietnamese Communist dynasty when Hanoi leaders started pursuing a perilous socialist path. In 1964, the Third Legislature was elected and later its term was extended to 1971 because of the Vietnam War. The Fourth, from 1971 to 1975, the last years of war, had done the least to the regime even as a rubber stamp. It was followed by the Fifth Legislature, which lasted one year (April 1975-April 1976) and the Fifth was replaced by the Sixth after Hanoi defeated Saigon and unified the country under Communist dictatorship.

The legislatures that followed were playing its role smoothly to paint an image of democracy over the appearance of the regime. The last two legislatures 9^th and 10^th have been the busiest ones, passing several dozens of bills and regulations. That quantity is remarkable, despite the fact that the NA has done just formal tasks, voting yes to those drafted by the government under the directives of the Politburo.

During the last decade, there have been some little changes in the Hanoi legislatures. The deputies are allowed to voice more criticisms and posing more questions to cabinet members. However, such criticisms are permitted on a limited extent. The legislators could debate or criticizing on topics regarding policies and actions of the government from central to infrastructure levels, but not of the supreme leaders constituting the “infallible” Politburo.

In recent years, a number of deputies dared to raise their voices against wrongdoing committed by medium and low ranking Party cadres and government officials, and to support people’s petitions and complaints, in a certain extent, of course. Nevertheless, it is not expected that in the near future, Hanoi legislators would be granted further limit for their criticism.

Several times people outside Vietnam have had a dim hope that Hanoi legislature would at last be transformed into a strong independent institution of a true democracy. But such hope has always been drowned.

The next election will be held earlier than previously scheduled. Besides, a propaganda campaign in a scale larger than ever is going on. Possibly the Communist leaders intend to use the occasion to prove to the world that their regime is going to modify itself following a Western-style democracy.

However, the incoming election seems to produce no considerable changes. Candidates still have to be nominated by the Fatherland Front. The front is a constitutional institution, a Party’s instrument that has the power of a legal political body to keep control over the people and to draw support of the mass.

The consultative meetings of its member associations under the Communist officials as chairmen at all levels will nominate the candidates. It means that non-party citizens are rarely allowed by the Front to run for seats in the legislature, except for those who were selected beforehand by the party committees for special purposes. One of the very popular sarcastic sayings is “Dang cu, dan bau,” loosely translated as “The citizens cast their votes, but the Party elects the deputies.”

In the 11^th Plenum of the Vietnam Communist Party Central Committee and successive conferences at all levels in the last few weeks to discuss plans to organize successful elections, the basic rule is “to strengthen the Party’s leadership” as ever.

As always done in the last four decades, candidates are arranged in a presentable pattern. Each group or class or profession is represented by a proportional number of deputies, so that all of them make the legislature look balanced and fair.

The proportion and the composition of deputies in the legislature are vital requirements that the election councils have to carry out. That is why beside deputies graduated from colleges, there have been many others whose education do not go beyond 2^nd grade and were working for many years as unskilled wagers, such as street-sweepers and abecedarian peasants.

This year, voters will elect a legislature of 500 deputies. The Party Central Committee has decided that candidates who are Party members must hold about 80 percent of the National Assembly seats.

According to Hanoi Election Law, every citizen has the right to run for a seat in the legislature. But when Mr. Pham Que Duong, a retired North Vietnamese Army colonel and a dissident applied for candidacy, he was intimidated and harassed, although he meets all criteria to be a candidate.

Before the late 1980s, in many constituencies, the number of candidates is equal to the seats they were competing for. Then, a Politburo order required the Fatherland Front and election councils to nominate more candidates for the seats to be elected. The solitaire game partly ended, however in many places, the formula is still set as “candidates = seats+1.”

Take the 3^rd NA in May-1964 as an example. In that election, the Fatherland Front nominated 447 candidates to run for 366 seats. Thus 285 were facing no contest.

By the first week of April, according to unofficial reports, over 900 names have been on the list. Accurate numbers of candidates have not been released.

Thus nominated and elected, many deputies spent most of their time in session for doing nothing because of their inability to understand or to speech on an issue. The Vietnamese people dub them as “nghi gat,” (nodding deputies).

Besides, many of the deputies are also incumbent government and party officials and army officers. They hold both positions, serving as members of the executive branch and the party while they are working as deputies when the legislature is in session. The deputies are not protected by full immunity. In the May 19 election, according to official directives by the Politburo, there will be 25 percent of the NA members working full time as deputies.

Last week in a discussion, numerous deputies endorsed a remark that “laws passed by the National Assembly sound like political resolutions.” This is one of many reasons that makes most laws unstable, which are not enforced, neglected by authorities and subject to be changed overnight.

People don’t expect that the 11^th Legislature would be any better than the last while it will have to work on many dozens of bills, especially on legislations to speed up the economic reforms as insisted by international donors (World Bank, International Monetary Fund...). The 11^th Legislature will have to bear heavy loads of legislative work, but there is no sign of more capable lawmakers to be expected.

If there is no reform to be conducted right in the National Assembly on its selection of deputies, its procedures and its organization, people will only see the same thing in a new name. New laws and regulations will not be more helpful to anyone, particularly the foreign investors.

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