By Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen
HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party on Sunday re-elected its 76-year-old chief Nguyen Phu Trong for a rare third term in five years as the country in Southeast Asia battled the biggest coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic.
Trong, who came out on top in a power struggle during the last congress in 2016 and led a “burning furnace” against corruption for the past five years, got an exception to party rules that say people over 65 must retire. , which has cemented its position as one of the country’s strongest and longest-serving leaders for decades.
“Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong has been elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, term XIII,” the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.
Trong’s re-election as party secretary-general took place at a five-year party congress in Hanoi, where 1,600 party delegates from across Vietnam held eight-day meetings, mostly behind closed doors, to select a new leadership team aimed at ongoing Vietnam to strengthen economic success – and the legitimacy of the party’s government.
(For a profile on Trong, click here https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-politics-trong-idUSKBN2A006T))
Vietnam has no main ruler and is officially led by four “pillars”: the head of his Communist Party, the most powerful post; a president; a prime minister; and the chairman of the National Assembly.
While the rise to the highest levels of Vietnamese politics is controlled by party regulations, the top secret process is in fact revolving around building consensus and fighting for control of the decision-making Politburo.
This means that exceptions to rules can be granted – especially if no consensus can be reached on the best candidates.
The Chinese president and Xi Jinping, ruling Communist Party chief, sent a congratulatory message to Trong on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
HANOI CLOSES SCHOOLS
Since taking office in 2011, Trong has built up a power base that has prevailed over him in a showdown with former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung during the last congress in 2016.
His repression of corruption, described by government critics as politically motivated, has sentenced dozens of high-level officials, including one member of the Politburo, to long prison terms.
Trong’s re-election by members of the ruling Communist Party came when Vietnam had a new COVID-19 outbreak that infected at least 221 people and spread to at least eight cities and provinces in the country, including the southern economic center of Ho Chi Minh. City and capital, Hanoi.
After the new outbreak was detected, state media reported that the congress would end on Monday, a day earlier than planned.
The Ministry of Health reported early Sunday 14 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 1781, with 35 deaths.
Authorities in Hanoi announced on Sunday that all schools in the city would close after several residential areas and a factory in the northern province of Hai Duong, the epicenter of the outbreak, were closed as the first cases of community dispersal in nearly two months have been detected there. last week.
(Reporting by Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen; additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; writing by James Pearson; editing by William Mallard and Raju Gopalakrishnan)