Parliament holds vote of confidence on 44 officials

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (third from right) and other Party and State leaders cast ballots in the vote of confidence on October 25 morning. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Legislators cast secret ballots in the vote of confidence on the 44 persons holding the positions elected or approved by the National Assembly (NA) on October 25 morning, part of the ongoing sixth session of the 15th NA.

Results are scheduled to be announced in the afternoon the same day. Later, the NA will vote on a draft resolution confirming the results.

The organisation of the vote aims to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of the parliament’s supervisory activities and the State apparatus’s activities, help assess the prestige and performance of officials, and help them realise the confidence they are given so as to continue making self-improvement and bettering their performance. It is also a basis for authorised agencies to carry out personnel planning, training, appointment, and use.

This is an important work that must be implemented in line with regulations and with democracy, objectivity, impartiality, and transparency guaranteed to have precise assessment of officials’ performance of their duties, political steadfastness, morality, and lifestyle.

Nguyen Thi Thanh, head of the board of NA deputies’ affairs under the NA Standing Committee, said that the vote is a critically important part of the parliament’s supervisory activities. To implement the Politburo’s Regulation No. 96-QD/TW on the collection of votes of confidence on the leadership and management positions in the political system, at its fifth session earlier this year, the 15th NA issued Resolution No. 96/2023/QH15 on the collection and holding of the vote of confidence on the persons holding the positions elected or approved by the NA and the People’s Councils.

According to this resolution, the parliament holds the vote of confidence on those holding the following positions: the State President, the Vice State President, the chairperson and vice chairpersons of the NA, members of the NA Standing Committee, the NA Secretary General, the chairperson of the NA’s Council for Ethnic Affairs, the chairpersons of the NA committees, the Prime Minister, the deputy prime ministers, ministers, other members of the Government, the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court, the Prosecutor General of the Supreme People’s Procuracy, and the Auditor General of the State Audit Office.

Legislators at the sixth session of the 15th NA (Photo: VNA)

Clause 5 of Article 2 in the resolution also stipulates that the vote of confidence will not be held for officials who are waiting for retirement or were elected/appointed in the same year the vote of confidence is conducted.

Forty-nine people are holding the positions elected or approved by the NA at present, but five officials who were elected or approved in 2023 will not be subject to the vote of confidence, hence the list of 44. Those five officials are State President Vo Van Thuong, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh, and member of the NA Standing Committee and Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Financial and Budgetary Affairs Le Quang Manh.

Thanh noted that according to Resolution No. 96/2023/QH15, the persons who have “low confidence” making up more than 50% to under two-thirds of the total ballots can apply for resignation. In case they do not apply for resignation, the NA Standing Committee can propose the NA hold a vote of confidence on them right at the same session or the next

To those who have “low confidence” making up at least two-thirds of the total votes, the agencies or competent persons nominating those officials for the positions elected or approved by the NA will have to propose the NA relieve or approve the relief proposal at the same session or the next./.

VNA