Vietnam to start selection of new president: official

Vietnam's national assembly will start the process of choosing a president on Monday, a senior official said, after a series of leadership changeovers threw the communist state into an unusual period of political upheaval.

For decades in Vietnam, all changes were carefully orchestrated with an emphasis on stability. But a major anti-graft purge since 2021 swept up several high-level figures, including two presidents and three deputy prime ministers.

The country's four-pillar leadership structure includes the general secretary, president, prime minister and head of the National Assembly. Current President To Lam was named general secretary of the Communist Party -- Vietnam's top leader -- in August following the death of his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong. Trong held both positions at the same time between October 2018 and April 2021.

"The party central committee agreed to recommend personnel with appropriate conditions and will submit to the national assembly to approve the position of the state president of the socialist republic of Vietnam," Nguyen Thanh Hai, the head of the committee for deputy affairs, said at a press conference on Sunday.