After long and careful consideration, the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee ( CPVCC) elected Nong Duc Manh its general secretary for the second term, and the post announcement was made on Tuesday, the last working day of the 10th national party congress.

On Monday afternoon, the newly-elected CPVCC held its first meeting, during which it elected the committee's Political Bureau with 14 members, and then the CPVCC's general secretary from members of the bureau.

For the first time, delegates to a national party congress have cast trust votes for the post of general secretary. On Monday, 1, 176 delegates the 10th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), on behalf of 3.1 million party members in Vietnam, introduced a person among 160 full members of the newly-elected CPVCC for the post of general secretary by marking his or her name in a trust ballot.

"That is not voting, but introduction. The delegates' ideas are of great importance. They are not only reference, but also a foundation for the CPVCC to consider and then elect the general secretary," the newly re-elected CPVCC general secretary Nong Duc Manh said at a press conference after the 8-day congress concluded on Tuesday.

"The congress introduced three full members of the 10th tenure CPVCC for the post of general secretary. Nong Duc Manh got nearly 900 votes from the congress' delegates, the second person over 200 votes, and the third people only dozens of votes. Based on many foundations, including the trust voting, the CPVCC re-elected Nong Duc Manh general secretary," Dao Duy Quat, vice director of the CPVCC's Commission on Ideological and Cultural Affairs, told Xinhua on Tuesday afternoon.

On Sunday afternoon, the congress' delegates voted full membership of the 10th CPVCC from 207 candidates. It is rumored that Nguyen Minh Triet, Secretary of the Party Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, got a very high number of votes, and that he was introduced for the post of general secretary on Monday, also with high trust voting result.

Besides the trust voting, the 10th congress had some other new features regarding election work, such as nomination and self- nomination.

For the first time, the CPV permitted its members to self- nominate for membership of the CPVCC. Two members self-nominated, namely deputy minister of foreign affairs Nguyen Phu Binh and scientist from the Hanoi National University Nguyen Xuan Han.

The CPV, also for the first time, allowed delegations of party members in cities and provinces nationwide nominated candidates for the CPVCC. Earlier, the outgoing CPVCC introduced the national congress candidates for membership of the ingoing CPVCC.

At the 10th congress, the delegations nominated 31 candidates for full membership of the 10th tenure CPVCC, while the 9th tenure CPVCC introduced 174 party members. Out of a total of the 207 candidates, 160 were elected official members of the 10th tenure CPVCC, all of them were candidates introduced by the 9th tenure CPVCC. Of the 160 people, 81 were members of the 9th tenure CPVCC.

The congress also elected 21 alternate members of the CPVCC from 46 candidates, including 30 introduced by the 9th CPVCC and 16 by the congress. Earlier, the congress targeted 25 alternate members, but at last decided to elect 21 since some candidates did not get sufficient votes.

The 10th congress wrapped up on Tuesday after reaching consensus on a political report, major socio-economic issues, party construction, and amendment to the party's statute.

Before the closing, the congress's secretariat presented results of delegates' voting for major issues. Specifically, 51.02 percent of the voters agreed with the annual economic growth target of 7.5-8.0 percent with further aim of more than 8 percent if possible in the 2006-2010 period.

Up to 87.69 percent of the voters agreed with the party's new regulation mentioned in the amended statute, which says "party members, who engage in running private business, must typically obey the law, polices of the state, and strictly obey the party's statute, and regulations of the CPVCC".

The delegates to the congress came from three blocks: members of the 9th tenure CPVCC, who are automatically admitted to the event; those who were selected by party committees at different levels in cities and provinces nationwide; and those who are working overseas.

Source: Xinhua