Vietnam to pause conducting confidence vote

Vietnam will pause the confidence vote for those holding positions that have been elected or approved by the Vietnam's National Assembly (NA) and People's Council at the upcoming NA session. Nguyen Thi Nuong, Head of NA Committee for Deputy Affairs said at a session of the NA Standing Committee on Friday that the vote of confidence will not be conducted at the upcoming seventh session of the 13th NA scheduled in May 2014. Nuong said the pause in conducting of confidence vote is to wait for specific guidance of uniform implementation nationwide, which is regulated in the Announcement 149 released by the Politburo earlier on Dec. 2013. A Resolution over the pause of vote of confidence is expected to be passed during the upcoming NA session, Nuong said, adding that the NA will also debate to give amendment to the Resolution 35 on conducting vote of confidence for those holding positions that have been elected or approved by the National Assembly and People's Council that was issued in 2012. According to Resolution 35, with 95.1 percent of approval passed by the 13th NA's fourth session in November, 2012, NA will hold annual confidence votes, allowing delegates to express "high confidence," "confidence" or "low confidence" in 49 officials from president, prime minister, NA chairman, cabinet members to Supreme Court judge and chief state auditor. The vote of confidence was conducted for the first time in Vietnam during the fifth session of the 13th NA, which was held in its capital Hanoi from May 20 to June 21, 2013. However, only 47 Vietnamese officials faced the first round of confidence votes as two newly-elected members were excluded from the list for not serving long enough terms. During the unprecedented confidence vote, all 47 officials have all won favorably in the first round of voting. Resolution 35 regulated that officials who receive over two- thirds of "low confidence" or two consecutive annual "low confidence" rating from more than half of the legislature will trigger a no-confidence vote at the next NA session, unless the related officials resign. Those who fail in no-confidence votes will be asked to step down from their posts. Phan Trung Ly, Chairman of the NA Law Committee said as the vote of confidence is unprecedented in Vietnam, it takes time for the NA's related bodies to review its work and to amend the Resolution 35. Meanwhile, Nguyen Hanh Phuc, Chairman of the NA Office said Vietnam has taken a long leap in legislation work after conducting the first confidence vote in 2013. However, the sudden disruption would cause contrary among voters and public. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly explaining to residents. Ksor Phuoc, Chairman of the NA Council for Ethnic Affairs said the result of the first round of confidence vote in 2013 showed that most of the bodies under the NA got high confidence, while the group of law enforcement faced a high ratio of low confidence. Ksor Phuoc proposed to conduct vote of confidence only with the law enforcement officials as they have frequent contact with public for administration work. Phuoc's proposal received high support from public. A reader named Nguyen Hung commented on an article posted on VNExpress online newspaper on Friday that the results of confidence vote on law enforcement officials will reflect the level of satisfaction of residents with the administration and management of the government from central to localities. The idea was also applauded by reader Cong Toan and Nguyen Nhu.