Third Vietnam politburo member resigns in two months
AN INFLUENTIAL member of Vietnam’s powerful Politburo has resigned, the Communist Party said on Thursday (May 16), weeks after the president and national assembly head stepped down as part of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign.
Truong Thi Mai, 66, held the position of permanent member of the secretariat in the central party committee – the most important position in Vietnamese politics outside its four-pillar leadership structure.
Thousands of people – including top officials and senior business leaders – have been caught up in the South-east Asian country’s “blazing furnace” crackdown on graft, led by Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
Mai submitted her resignation due to “a number of violations and shortcomings in her work...affecting the reputation of the party and herself”, the party said in an online statement.
Her resignation follows that of President Vo Van Thuong in March and National Assembly Head Vuong Dinh Hue’s in April, also for unspecified “violations and shortcomings”.
The Communist Party said on Thursday it had nominated people for those positions, without elaborating.
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The candidates will be officially voted in by Vietnam’s rubber-stamp National Assembly, which is due to meet next week.
With the resignation of Mai, the once 18-strong politburo fell to 12 after also losing two presidents, the national assembly chairman, a deputy prime minister and the head of the party’s economic commission in the past 18 months.
However, the party said on Thursday four new members had been appointed, including Bui Thi Minh Hoai, replacing Mai as the solitary woman in the politburo.
Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said Mai’s resignation from a “very important” role represented another loss in the top echelons of Vietnamese politics.
“She coordinates different factions within the party and also governs the day-to-day affairs of the party,” he told AFP.
“I think there would be no other word than chaos to describe what is happening right now in Vietnam.” AFP
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