VietNamNet Bridge – The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee started its 23rd meeting in Hanoi on December 23 to review the outcomes of the NA’s sixth session and consider initial preparations for the next.

President commends judicial reform plan; Vietnam’s amended Constitution announced; VNU plays key role for science research; HCM City People’s Council opens 12th session

 VietNamNet Bridge – State President Truong Tan Sang on December 8 signed to promulgate the revised Constitution and a resolution guiding the enactment of the new Constitutional amendments.

 VietNamNet Bridge – National Assembly (NA) deputy Nguyen Van Tien of Tien Giang Province has proposed to mention Hoang Sa (Paracels) and Truong Sa (Spratlys) archipelagoes in the preamble of the Constitution.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The National Assembly (NA) did not approve the revised Land Law on the final day of the NA session as expected.

The Commission on draft amendments to the Constitution said that the name "Socialist Republic of Vietnam" should be maintained to ensure stability and to prevent distortion that moves the country away from the target and generates more procedures.

 VietNamNet Bridge - National Assembly deputies have confirmed that the legal provisions relating to homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders need to be discussed in the upcoming session.

VietNamNet Bridge - The draft amendment of the 1992 Constitution will be discussed in the upcoming National Assembly session, in the two day session that will be televised live.

VietNamNet Bridge - Through collecting people’s opinions on the draft amendment to the Constitution 1992, there is the proposal of resuming the country’s name as Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnamese public has been invited to comment on an amended draft of the country's constitution.

"I suggest that the people elect the President to add value to the rule of the people's vote," said Prof. Le Mau Han at the conference of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, with the presence of President Truong Tan Sang.

VietNamNet Bridge – The army is always associated with the regime, the regime is under the Communist Party’s leadership. If the army is not politicized, it will become the robot army.

Discussion on the draft amendments to Constitution 1992, full-time National Assembly deputies disagreed with the way that some agencies responded to the proposal of removing Article 4 on the role of the Communist Party.

On the occasion of amending the Constitution, Vietnam should carry out some reforms, such as allowing the people to directly elect the President and combining the Party General Secretary and the President into one position.

While Article 4 on the role and leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam in the draft amendments to the Constitution is being widely discussed, the building of the law on the party must be promoted.

Why not prescribe the compulsory procedures on the people’s review of the draft Constitution to confirm whether the content of the Constitution actually expresses the general will of the people or not …

Making comment on the draft amendments to the Constitution, social organizations proposed to establish the National Commission on Human Rights, as a constitutional institution next to the Constitutional Council and the State Audit Agency.

Many experts have suggested narrowing the powers of the National Assembly Standing Committee in order to avoid the situation in which the National Assembly is “neutralized.”

Amending the 1992 Constitution is an opportunity for the Communist Party of Vietnam’s innovation to ensure its leadership, said a senior scholar of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration.