People can directly elect the Chairman of the Ward People's Committee.

Commenting on the draft Law on Organization of Local Government, some members of the National Assembly Standing Committee suggested that it might be possible to stipulate that people directly elect the position of "Chairman of the Ward People's Committee".

On the morning of January 20, at the 34th session, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on Organization of Local Government after the Law Committee compiled and drafted the opinions of National Assembly deputies.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee Phan Trung Ly said that regarding the local government organization model, there are opinions suggesting that it is necessary to distinguish between the local government organization model in urban areas and in rural areas to suit the characteristics and management requirements in each area.

Therefore, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee and the drafting agency (Ministry of Home Affairs) proposed two options for acceptance and revision.

Option 1: In rural areas, the government level (with People's Council and People's Committee) will be organized at 3 administrative levels: province, district, commune; in urban areas, the government level (with People's Council and People's Committee) will only be organized at centrally-run cities, towns, provincial cities, districts and equivalent administrative units; and in wards (belonging to districts, towns, provincial cities and equivalent administrative units), only administrative agencies will be organized to perform the tasks of local government at the ward level.

According to the Law Committee, the organization according to this plan shows the distinction between the model of local government organization in rural administrative units and urban administrative units as required in the 2013 Constitution. The organization of 2-level government in urban areas will ensure unity and connectivity in planning management, infrastructure and people's lives in the area, streamlining the organizational apparatus, but still ensuring the implementation of the people's representation rights.

Option 2 is to continue to stipulate that local government levels (with People's Councils and People's Committees) are organized in all administrative units, including rural and urban areas. This regulation demonstrates the consistency between the division of administrative units and the establishment of local government organizations in those administrative units.

Agreeing with option 1, however, Chairman of the National Assembly Office Nguyen Hanh Phuc and Chairwoman of the Committee for Social Affairs Truong Thi Mai proposed adding a regulation that people can directly elect the Chairman of the Ward People's Committee and each ward will have a representative on the District People's Council to supervise activities.

National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung said that if there is a regulation on “government level”, there must be a People’s Committee and a People’s Council. If option 1 is followed, the ward is not a government level (because there is no People’s Council), so the People’s Committee must be organized with the authority, functions, and model of urban management.

Therefore, if there are two levels of government in centrally run cities, towns, and provincial cities, the number of members of the People's Councils of provinces, centrally run cities, and districts must be increased to strengthen supervision of the activities of the entire ward, the National Assembly Chairman suggested.

Agreeing with the idea of ​​people electing the Chairman of the Ward People's Committee, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung said that this position as well as members of the Ward People's Committee will be approved by the People's Committee or People's Council at a higher level. In addition, the National Assembly Chairman proposed another option that the People's Council at a higher level elects the Chairman of the Ward People's Committee based on a list of officials with high votes of confidence from the people in the area.

In particular, the National Assembly Chairman noted that the draft Law has not paid attention to regulations and decentralization of powers, responsibilities, and functions of heads or Standing Committees of local governments.

In addition, the government model in islands and special economic zones is still "absent" in the draft Law and the National Assembly Chairman believes that it should be regulated according to a single-level government (including the People's Committee and People's Council) in these areas.

After today's discussion session, the reviewing and drafting agencies will continue to complete the draft Law to submit to the National Assembly at the mid-year session of 2015.

According to Chinhphu.vn