Day of democracy in communist Vietnam in vote on party's Parliament

Hanoi

VIETNAM showcased its five-yearly day of democracy on Sunday with an election for a Parliament tightly controlled by a Communist Party that is seeing unprecedented challenges to its four-decade political monopoly.

Some 69 million Vietnamese were registered to vote to choose representatives for a 500-seat National Assembly, with the ballot comprised overwhelmingly of candidates representing the secretive party or nominated by state institutions.

The election could turn out to be an anti-climax - after an astonishing swell of public interest in the scores of activists, celebrities and ordinary Vietnamese who tried to run as independent candidates - and it could test the sin…