The festive atmosphere of the National Assembly and People’s Councils elections has overwhelming all localities nationwide from the country’s northernmost point of Lung Cu in Dong Van district, Ha Giang province to the southernmost Ca Mau Cape.

At 7:00 am on May 22, over 455,000 voters in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang began to go to the polls to select deputies to the 13 th National Assembly and People’s Councils at all levels for the 2011-2016 term.

All roads, streets and alleys from cities to mountainous and remote villages as well as polling stations were decorated with flags, flowers, banners, panels and posters, creating an ebullient atmosphere of the festive day.

In Lung Cu commune, Dong Van district – the country’s northernmost land, where 87 percent of the population are H’mong people, voters donned their colourful traditional costumes to go to the polls.

Walking tens of kilometers crossing forests in order to timely attend the opening ceremony of the elections at the headquarters of the communal People’s Committee, 83-year-old H’mong Vang Thi Mua in Lo Lo Chai village said that this is the 13 th time she has participated in NA elections. Every time, she got up early to go to the polls.

Her granddaughter, Sung Thi Mai, 18, confided “this is the first time I have cast her ballot so I felt very nervous.”

According to Hoang Duc Tien, Director of the Ha Giang provincial Department of Home Affairs, member of the Secretariat of the provincial Election Committee, by mid morning, the elections took place smoothly in all polling stations and constituencies. Northern mountainous districts on the Dong Van Stone Plateau completed early elections. In some remote and border villages, despite difficult travel conditions and big rain last night, ethnic minority people went to the polls very early.

In the country’s southernmost province of Ca Mau , more than 850,000 voters are expected to cast their ballots at 1,293 polling stations.

For the sick and elderly, communal cadres brought ballot boxes to their homes to help them fully perform their citizen rights.

Since early morning, all key provincial leaders have attended opening ceremonies and cast their ballots in order to later examine election work in localities. Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Pham Thanh Tuoi has joined a live television programme in Cai Nuoc district.

The NA and People’s Council elections are really a great festival day for Ca Mau province as voters can express their confidence and hopes in future leaders./.