Vo Van Thuong – a young politician of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who was elected as State President in March 2023, after 13 months in office, is at risk of “moving out of his position.”
The rumors just mentioned show that Vietnam’s political scene is showing extremely unusual and worrying signs. After the 13th Party National Congress, which took place just over 3 years ago, there have been two changes in the State President’s position.
An international news agency on March 17 reported in English, roughly translated “Vietnam National Assembly sends notice to delegates about meeting on personnel issues.” The news said that a notice of the extraordinary meeting was sent to National Assembly delegates, amid speculation about a reshuffle in the Communist country’s top leadership.
Many Vietnamese officials and diplomats told the above news agency that only with the possibility of Vo Van Thuong’s resignation would it be necessary to discuss and vote on one of the personnel issues that the National Assembly will discuss.
Previously, on social networks and Vietnamese political forums, rumors were spread, confirming that, on March 21-23, the Party Central Committee and the 15th National Assembly would hold extraordinary meeting to dismiss all positions of State President Vo Van Thuong.
Notably, on March 17, a short status appeared on the Vietnam National Assembly Television Facebook page: “Announcement of convening the 6th Extraordinary Session, 15th National Assembly.”
However, this news disappeared later.
According to observers, there is a high possibility that this is a deliberate “throwing stones” to gauge the reaction of public opinion to the shocking news that “State President Vo Van Thuong will be dismissed” is about to happen.
For many years, Thuong has been considered close to Nguyen Phu Trong – the leading powerful figure in Vietnam today.
According to procedure and practice, the Party Central Committee will hold an extraordinary meeting to decide on Thuong’s resignation from his positions in the Party Central Committee. Then it is the National Assembly’s turn to vote to dismiss Thuong as State President.
The dismissal process for Thuong will be similar to that of former State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, a year ago.
According to analysts, not long ago, at the end of 2023, State President Vo Van Thuong was also highly appreciated in the race to win the General Secretary position at the 14th Party National Congress. The rise of Thuong and with the support of General Trong, overshadowed the role of other candidates such as Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, top legislator Vuong Dinh Hue and police chief To Lam.
Thuong was forced to submit a resignation letter, after 13 months of sitting in the “hot position.” His resignation is said to be related to the time he held the position of Secretary of the Quang Ngai provincial Party Committee in the 2011-2014 period.
Accordingly, Dang Trung Hoanh, a relative of Thuong, was accused of receiving VND60 billion ($2.4 million) from Nguyen Van Hau – Chairman of Phuc Son Group, to build an ancestral temple for Thuong’s family in his hometown of Mang Thit district, Vinh Long province. In return, Phuc Son Group received investment projects worth thousands of billions of dong.
Those familiar with the Vietnamese leadership believe that Thuong’s fall from his horse was part of Minister of Public Security To Lam’s plan to usurp the throne from the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong. Meanwhile, there are rumors that General Secretary Trong is having health problems.
There are also rumors that recently, Truong Thi Mai – Member of the Politburo, Standing Committee of the Secretariat, and Head of the Central Committee’s Organization Commission, said: “I am very sad for the country. Why does increase arrests to compete for power and send officials and businesses to prison? This statement was made during a meeting where Ms. Mai submitted her resignation, but it was not accepted. Thoibao.de does not have the conditions to verify this news.
Public opinion sees that the unexpected fall of Thuong has shown that, with General Secretary Trong’s current arbitrary mechanism for selecting senior leadership personnel, there is a lack of the party internal supervision, then all the Party’s senior leaders will certainly not be clean. They are just corrupt individuals but have not been exposed yet./.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
