Vietnam’s governing Communist Party has nominated the public security minister to be the next president, state media reported, months after his predecessor stepped down as part of a anticorruption crackdown.
On Saturday, the party’s central committee picked To Lam, 66, the Vietnam News Agency reported.
Lam has been public security minister since 2016 and has taken a hard line on human rights movements in the country.
In March, President Vo Van Thuong resigned after a little more than a year in office due to “violations” and “shortcomings”, the party said.
Thuong was the second president to quit in two years amid an anticorruption crackdown that has seen several senior politicians fired and top business leaders tried for fraud and corruption.
When he took office, Thuong said he was “determined to fight corruption”, and was believed to be close to party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong – who is seen as the most powerful figure in the country.
Thousands of people, including top officials and senior business leaders, have been caught up the country’s “blazing furnace” campaign against corruption, which has touched the highest echelons of Vietnamese politics and is led by Trong.
‘Violations and shortcomings’
Tran Thanh Man, 61, was also nominated as the new head of Vietnam’s National Assembly, state media said, becoming one of Vietnam’s four most powerful leaders.
Man succeeds Vuong Dinh Hue, who asked to step down last month because of “violations and shortcomings”.
The nominations have been accepted by the party’s central committee but will be officially voted in by the National Assembly, which is due to meet next week.
All top leadership “must be truly united, truly exemplary, wholehearted and devoted to the common cause”, the central committee said.
In April, a court in Vietnam sentenced a property tycoon to death for her role in a $12.5bn financial fraud case, the country’s largest on record.
Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking rules at the end of a trial in Ho Chi Minh City.
Lan’s arrest in October 2022 was among the most high-profile in the continuing anticorruption drive that started in 2016 and has picked up pace since 2022.
