{"id":542368,"date":"2026-03-15T17:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T17:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542368\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T17:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T17:34:15","slug":"vietnam-holds-general-election-93-candidates-from-ruling-communist-party-elections-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542368\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam holds general election, 93% candidates from ruling Communist Party | Elections News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vietnamese elect members of parliament from a list of candidates \u2060almost exclusively fielded by the governing party.<\/p>\n

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Published On 15 Mar 202615 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

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Voters in Vietnam have cast their ballots for members of the National Assembly, the country\u2019s top legislative body, which serves mainly to ratify decisions by the governing Communist Party.<\/p>\n

Nearly 93 percent of the 864 parliamentary candidates in Sunday\u2019s election are Communist Party members, while 7.5 percent are independents, according to the national election council, down from 8.5 percent in 2021.<\/p>\n

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The five-yearly elections in the tightly controlled one-party state will see more than 73 million voters elect 500 members of the National Assembly and representatives for local councils.<\/p>\n

The Communist Party, which has ruled the Southeast Asian nation of 100 million people unopposed for decades, holds 97 percent of the parliamentary seats.<\/p>\n

\"epa12820474People look at the lists of candidates at a polling station in Hanoi, March 15, 2026 [Luong Thai Linh\/EPA]<\/p>\n

Voters expressed hope their representatives would continue modernising Vietnam, whose booming economy is undergoing major reforms introduced by top leader To Lam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Red-and-yellow banners fluttered from lampposts and traffic lights in the capital, Hanoi, where well-dressed senior citizens were some of the first to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do expect top leaders after this election will make major changes to make our country better,\u201d Nguyen Thi Kim, 73, told the AFP news agency at a polling station set up in a community room of a high-rise residential block in Hanoi.<\/p>\n

But in a country where major policies and projects are decided by senior cadres, many citizens feel lukewarm about elections. \u201cI don\u2019t think who wins will have any impact on my life,\u201d said a woman, who gave her name as Huyen, in Hanoi.<\/p>\n

Most polling stations closed at 7pm (12:00 GMT), with results expected on March 23.<\/p>\n

\"VietnamVoters cast ballots in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 15, 2026 [Hau Dinh\/AP]<\/p>\n

The opening plenary session of the National Assembly is scheduled for early April, when \u2060lawmakers are expected to approve the state\u2019s top leaders previously nominated by the party, including the president and the prime minister.<\/p>\n

The party confirmed Lm as its general secretary, Vietnam\u2019s most powerful position, during \u2060its five-yearly congress in January, when it also selected the 19 members of \u2060the Politburo, its top decision-making body.<\/p>\n

After voting on Sunday morning in Hanoi, Lam said on live television that the election aimed \u201cto choose the most prestigious people to continue leading the country to more development\u201d.<\/p>\n

First-time voter Nguyen Kim Chi, 18, said she cast her ballot in the capital for \u201call the young\u201d candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know top positions are already set,\u201d she added, \u201cbut I still hope my votes count.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vietnamese elect members of parliament from a list of candidates \u2060almost exclusively fielded by the governing party. Listen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[77,6485,43,44,41,39,42,40,5611],"class_list":["post-542368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-asia-pacific","tag-elections","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}