VietNamNet Bridge – Nearly VND700 billion ($35 million) has been allocated to local governments and central agencies to prepare the National Assembly (NA) and People’s Council elections, which will take place on May 22.

The Ministry’s Director of the Local Government Department, Nguyen Huu Duc, said that previously, the NA election and the People’s Council election were often held two years apart from each other. This time, they will take place at the same time, so the operation is more complicated. There are more than 91,000 vote precincts. Around 4,000-5,000 people are involved in election preparation in each province.

According to a representative from the Ministry of Finance, the total funding for election preparation was estimated at VND700 billion by March 3. Of the total, VND635.7 billion was allocated to provinces and cities, and VND26.3 billion to ministries and central agencies. An additional VND39 billion dong is required.

Minister of Home Affairs, Tran Van Tuan, said that locations that are difficult to finance will be assisted to organize the elections as scheduled.

For the elections on May 22, there will be 599 committees for People’s Council elections at districts, 10,630 committees for People’s Council elections at communes and 91,000 voting precincts in 63 provinces and cities.

Constituents will cast their votes to elect 500 NA deputies, over 3,200 deputies of provincial People’s Councils, over 21,000 deputies of district-level People’s Councils and over 280,000 deputies of People’s Councils at the commune level.

PV