Communist Party Control in Việt Nam’s National Assembly Elections

Although Việt Nam is a one-party state, it maintains detailed institutional arrangements governing elections to the National Assembly and People’s Councils at all levels. This suggests that these elections carry significance within the political system, despite the absence of party competition.

According to Professor Edmund Malesky of Duke University, a specialist on elections in Việt Nam, the authorities prioritize these events because “they are a very important opportunity for the government to stimulate public interest in political events and to strengthen their legitimacy through evidence of electoral participation.” [1] [2]

Why Party Central Committee Meetings Outweigh National Assembly sessions

In Vietnam, electoral competition does not derive political legitimacy. Instead, it depends on an electoral framework that tightly controls the candidate nomination process and heavily mobilizes the voting process. The goal is to achieve outcomes predetermined by central authorities, specifically near-universal voter turnout and almost unanimous vote shares.

To understand how the Communist Party of Việt Nam orchestrates this process, several key points about the upcoming election of the 16th National Assembly must be examined.

Legal Regulations Governing National Assembly Elections

Formally, the Constitution guarantees democratic principles for National Assembly elections. Article 7, Clause 1 mandates that elections be “universal, equal, direct, and by secret ballot.” [3] Article 27 also grants citizens aged eighteen and older the right to vote and those aged twenty-one and above the right to stand for election. 

Furthermore, the organization of these elections is entrusted to the National Election Council, an agency defined under Article 117, Clause 1, which states: “The National Election Council is an agency established by the National Assembly and is tasked with organizing elections of National Assembly deputies…”

These constitutional provisions are operationalized by the  Law on Elections of Deputies to the National Assembly and Deputies to People’s Councils (No. 85/2015/QH13), recently amended by Law No. 83/2025/QH15, which took effect on July 1, 2025. [4]

However, these principles are undermined by the tight control exercised by the Việt Nam Fatherland Front (Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam, MTTQVN). Through its power to determine the official candidate list, the MTTQVN effectively pre-selects National Assembly deputies. Consequently, despite the legal promise of “universality, equality, and directness,” the outcome is largely decided before the election begins.

The Role of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front

The amended 2025 Constitution (Article 9) explicitly affirms that the MTTQVN “is a component of the political system of the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam, led by the Communist Party of Việt Nam.” However, it does not detail its electoral power. That authority is instead derived from the Election Law.

Article 12 of the Election Law stipulates that “the National Election Council is established by the National Assembly and consists of between fifteen and twenty-one members, including a Chairperson, Vice Chairpersons, and members representing the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Government, the Central Committee of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front, and a number of other relevant agencies and organizations.”

Furthermore, Article 18, Clause 2 on the “working relationship” of the National Election Council states, “The National Election Council coordinates with the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front in conducting consultations and introducing candidates for National Assembly deputies, guiding consultations and introductions of candidates for People’s Council deputies, and organizing election campaigning.”

In short, under Article 12 and Article 18 of the Election Law, the National Election Council is legally bound to coordinate with the MTTQVN. This collaboration allows the Front to dominate the “consultation process,” which effectively filters who gets on the ballot.

This process, described as “an extremely important stage” by the Election Council, proceeds in five steps: [5]

1. An agreement is reached on the structure, composition, and number of candidates.
2. The nominees are then presented, and voter opinions are collected at workplaces and institutions.
3. A preliminary list of candidates is agreed upon during a second consultation phase.
4. Opinions are collected from voters at the candidates’ places of residence and work.
5. After a third round of consultation, the official list of qualified candidates is finalized.

Through these steps, the MTTQVN—a body under Party leadership—determines the final candidate list. Consequently, the general election serves only to formalize these internal selections, a practice that fundamentally contradicts the constitutional principles of “universality” and “equality.”

Limited Competition in National Assembly Elections

The Election Law (Article 57, Clause 6) mandates that “the number of candidates on the list of National Assembly deputies in each electoral unit must exceed the number of deputies to be elected in that unit by at least two.” This creates a small degree of competition in the process and distinguishes Việt Nam from Cuba, another one-party state where voters merely ratify a single candidate per seat. [6]

However, this competition is largely superficial. The candidates, while distinct individuals, are almost all selected by the same political party.

While self-nominated candidates and non-Party members do exist, they face significant hurdles in the consultation process. [7] Their presence is minimal, and historically, the proportion of non-party deputies has never exceeded 15 percent. [8] In the 2021 election for the 15th National Assembly, for instance, non-party members made up just 8.53 percent of the official candidate list. [9]

The tight control exercised by the MTTQVN ensures that only those deemed “friendly” to the regime survive the vetting process to appear on the ballot.

Campaigning Within Strict Boundaries

Even after making the official list, candidates face severe restrictions on both the duration and scope of their campaigns.

The Election Council is required to “[prepare] and [announce] the official list of candidates for National Assembly deputies by electoral unit nationwide […] no later than 17 days before election day.” In practice, this leaves voters with very little time to learn about the people seeking to represent them.

Furthermore, the “campaign” itself is tightly circumscribed. The Election Law prohibits independent campaigning or public debates. Instead, all activities must be conducted “within bounds” defined by the state—specifically through Party-controlled media or events organized by the Việt Nam Fatherland Front (MTTQVN).

Article 66 of the Election Law mandates that, “The Standing Committee of the provincial-level Việt Nam Fatherland Front [preside and coordinate] with the People’s Committee of the electoral unit to organize voter contact conferences for candidates for National Assembly deputies and candidates for provincial People’s Councils.”

Similarly, Article 45 stipulates that voter opinion conferences during the consultation phase are also “convened and chaired” by the Front’s commune-level Standing Committee.

Because these forums are not open, voters are denied access to diverse information and have limited opportunity to form meaningful political connections with their future representatives.

Quotas for Ethnic Minority Groups and Female Candidates

In addition to regulating limited competition, the Election Law contains a progressive element regarding representation. Article 8 mandates that the Standing Committee of the National Assembly must “reach agreement with the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front and representatives of socio-political organizations” to ensure specific quotas on the official candidate list.

Specifically, this coordination must ensure that:

• “At least 18 percent of the total number of people on the official list of candidates for National Assembly deputies are ethnic minorities,” (Clause 2); and
• “At least 35 percent of the total number of people on the official list of candidates for National Assembly deputies are women.” (Clause 3)

In the 2016 election (14th NA), 38.97 percent of candidates were women. [10] By the 2021 election (15th NA), those numbers rose to 45.28 percent for women and 21.31 percent for ethnic minorities. [11] These figures prove that the Vietnamese electoral apparatus functions efficiently when executing top-down directives.

However, this efficiency comes at a cost. Because the process is so managed, citizens often feel disconnected from their representatives. Elections are viewed less as a political right tied to their interests and more as an administrative obligation. This detachment helps explain why electoral fraud—specifically proxy voting (one person voting for the whole family)—remained common prior to 2021. Many voters were simply unaware that such convenience measures were illegal. [12]

Ultimately, while the Communist Party secures legitimacy through high turnout and perfectly balanced demographics, the result is a legitimacy born of mobilization, not genuine public trust. The widening gap between the perfect statistics of the National Assembly and the apathy of the average voter raises fundamental questions about the meaning of elections in a non-competitive system.

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Hoàng Mai wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on Feb. 05, 2026. Đàm Vĩnh Hằng translated it into English for The Vietnamese Magazine.