A conference on reviewing the results of the provincial and municipal people’s councils’ performance in 2023 and discussing measures to implement tasks in 2024 took place on March 25.

Summarizing the activities of people’s councils in 2023, the National Assembly Standing Committee reported that legislators cast secret ballots in a vote of confidence on 1,700 officials.

Meanwhile, another 208 officials were not subject to the vote of confidence. Of these, 176 officials were recently appointed to the posts in 2023 and 32 were about to retire or had been dismissed before the vote of confidence was held.

As many as 1,546 out of 1,700 officials, or 90.94 percent, had over 50 percent of ‘high confidence’ votes. One official got from more than 50 percent to just below two-thirds of low confidence votes. He is Le Duy Thanh, former chair of Vinh Phuc province, who has been arrested and prosecuted.

At the 13th session, the Vinh Phuc People’s Council organized confidence votes on 28 key officials and Thanh received 25 low-confidence votes (53.19 percent).

At the district level, vote of confidence was held on 12,028 officials. The people’s committees did not hold vote on 1,624 persons, including 1,466 persons who were elected in 2023, and 158 persons who were about to retire or had been dismissed before the vote was held.  

More than 50 percent ‘high confidence’ votes were given to 10,968 out of 12,028 officials (91.19 percent).

There were eight cases receiving from over 50 percent to 2/3 of low confidence votes in  Binh Phuoc, Hau Giang, Nghe An, Hai Phong, Hoa Binh and Kien Giang.

The official in Binh Phuoc with low confidence applied to resign from his post and the application was approved. As for the case in Hau Giang, the people’s council at district level voted to dismiss the official.

Two cases in Nghe An were also dismissed.

Regarding the official in Hai Phong, the municipal Standing Committee of the Party Committee released a decision on appointing him to another post. 

As for the case in Hoa Binh, the official still holds the position, because the number of low confidence votes was not over 50 percent.

The remaining two cases in Kien Giang and the other two in Quang Nam remain unsettled.

The National Assembly Resolution No 96 released in 2023 states that People's Councils at the provincial and district levels organize votes of confidence once each tenure, at the end of the third year of each tenure.

Tran Thuong