Nguyen Van Pha (middle) and Nguyen Si Dung at the talks

Pha said “candidates who are sincere for the elections would not hide their assets. If constituents detect candidates’ deceit, they would not vote for them.”

However, he admitted that “it is necessary to have a more effective way for constituents to have access to asset declarations of candidates.”

“According to the current regulations, there is no way for the people to have broad access to asset declarations of candidates. To verify the declarations, constituents must ask competent agencies,” Pha said.

He noted that the asset declarations must be made public to guarantee the right of supervision of constituents but it must ensure personal secrets of candidates.

“In Japan, asset declarations are kept at the Parliament Library. Anybody can read or take notes but they are not allowed to take photo or film,” he said.

Nguyen Si Dung, Vice chief of the NA Office, said that the ratio of full-time NA deputies will increase from 26 percent in the 12^th tenure to 33 in the next tenure while the total number of NA deputies will not change – 500.

Dung emphasized that for the upcoming elections, the NA and People’s Council are “representative institutions” which depend a half on authorized people (deputies) and a half on who grant the authority – constituents. The constituents, therefore, need to understand their right and duties and positively take part in the elections.

Simply explaining about this, Pha said “that constituents should cast the vote themselves and show their personal will in building the government.”

The deadline for submitting application for the NA election is March 18 and it is March 23 for the People’s Council election.

PV