Live television broadcast marks first General Election

Hanoi (VNA) – A special television programme themed “Representative” was broadcast live on Vietnam Television on January 4, recalling the nation’s glorious history and looking back the development of the National Assembly over the last seven decades.

As part of activities to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first General Election, the programme took audiences back to the eve of the August Revolution, when the Communist Party of Vietnam - under the ingenious leadership of President Ho Chi Minh – laid the first bricks of the democratic institution in Vietnam.

On January 6, 1946, Vietnamese nationals cast their ballots to elect the first NA deputies. The success of the general election opened a new period in the country’s history, with a National Assembly, a unified Government and a government system with full legal status to represent the people in external and internal affairs.

As guests of the event, historian Duong Trung Quoc, General Secretary of the Vietnam Science and History Association, Nguyen Si Dung, Deputy Head of the NA Office and scientist Nguyen Lan Dung underlined the significance of the first general election, highlighting the election campaign mechanism, the first NA question-and-answer session and the legislative and constitutional functions of the NA.

Documentary films screened at the event featured a number of places such as Lung Co Airport – the first international airport in Vietnam , and Tan Trao communal house, where a national congress was convened on August 18 and 19 in 1945.

The NA has continued to develop over the last 70 years as the highest representative body of the people and nation, implementing legislative and constitutional rights, deciding important national issues and supervising the nation’s activities.

The body is also expanding parliamentary external relations in the context of integration, having hosted the 132 nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU 32) in 2015.-VNA