Jakarta –
Vietnam will appoint a new president. The plan is for a new president to replace him Nguyen Xuan Phuc who stepped down amid a massive anti-corruption operation launched this week.
Reported by AFP, Wednesday (1/3/2023), Vo Van Thuong (52) is expected to replace Nguyen Xuan as President of Vietnam at an extraordinary meeting of the country’s national assembly later Thursday. Meanwhile, official political and government sources told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“The party’s central committee will meet Wednesday while the nearly 500 members of the national assembly will meet for its fourth extraordinary meeting Thursday,” a national assembly source told AFP.
“What is certain is that the national assembly met to elect the president, who is scheduled to be given to Vo Van Thuong,” said another government source.
Thuong has served as deputy chairman of the Central Steering Committee on the Prevention and Control of Corruption and Negative Phenomena since 2021.
He also headed the party’s central propaganda department, a position that greatly controlled freedom of speech and of the press.
Earlier, Vietnam’s VNA news agency reported that the 68-year-old Phuc had “submitted his resignation from the positions he held, quit his job and retired”.
Phuc’s abrupt departure is a highly unusual move in Vietnam, where political changes are usually carefully orchestrated to maintain stability.
Phuc resigned after two Deputy Prime Ministers (PM) were sacked this month in connection with a purge operation to eradicate corruption that led to the arrests of dozens of officials in the communist country.
(deck/deck)
