New Vietnam president sworn in after 99.8% vote

Vietnam lawmakers on Tuesday elected as president Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, the only candidate on the ballot, making him the most powerful man in the country where consensus leadership has traditionally kept strongman rule in check.

Trong was ushered into his new role as head-of-state with 99.8 percent of the vote from Vietnam's rubber stamp parliament members a month after the former president died from a prolonged illness.

Though the president's role is seen as largely ceremonial, 74-year-old Trong will maintain his position as party head -- the first person to hold both roles since revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh in the late 1960s. His new position was cemented in a tightly orchestrated swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday after an overwhelming vote from 477 lawmakers, with only one vote against.

His time in office as party head has also coincided with a crackdown on dissidents, with more than 55 jailed this year alone.

The US ambassador to Vietnam congratulated Trong on the post Tuesday.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/seasia/2018/10/23/new-vietnam-president-sworn-in-after-998-vote.html


Vietnam communist party chief Nguyen Phu Trong takes oath as country's president at the National Assembly hall in Hanoi on October 23, 2018.
Vietnam lawmakers on October 23, 2018 elected as president communist party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, the only candidate on the ballot,
making him the most powerful man in the country where consensus leadership has traditionally kept strongman rule in check. AFP (AFP/-)