Vote of confidence: Temporarily paused, not completely stopped.

The 25th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee unanimously agreed to submit a proposal to the National Assembly to temporarily suspend the vote of confidence at the 7th session, scheduled for May, in order to amend Resolution 35 of the National Assembly.

According to the National Assembly Standing Committee's explanation, the confidence vote process has only been temporarily suspended, not completely stopped, because after the first confidence vote, some difficulties and obstacles arose. Therefore, the National Assembly will conduct a review to learn from experience and make this process more effective.

The confidence vote process has only been temporarily suspended, not completely stopped. Photo: VnEconomy

Before nearly 500 National Assembly delegates, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung said: "The act of dropping a ballot into the ballot box is very simple, but the significance of this action is immense. For the first time, the National Assembly is exercising its supreme oversight power over personnel matters."

Never before have parliamentary proceedings been so closely monitored by voters. The results of confidence votes are updated hourly and minute-by-minute on mass media, attracting the attention of voters nationwide.

Much expectation has been placed on the vote of confidence, but many questions and concerns have also been raised. These include the subjects of the vote of confidence, the timing, and the process of conducting the vote of confidence… Just the regulation of three levels – “high confidence,” “confidence,” and “low confidence” – has led some to believe that this will result in a lack of focus in the votes.

Mr. Vu Trong Kim, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee, stated: “Due to insufficient access to information, some votes were based on averages. This was anticipated, unlike other countries which only have two levels of voting: confidence and no confidence. Our approach is mainly to remind each other in our work, treating illnesses and saving lives. Later, when we have better procedures and experience, we will only use two levels.”

Whether the confidence vote is held in the National Assembly or the People's Councils, a fairly consistent result is that the legislative branch usually receives more votes of confidence than the executive branch. Mr. Duong Ngoc Son, former Deputy Inspector General of the Government, suggested that it would be more reasonable to hold separate votes for each sector...

Following the National Assembly's confidence vote on 47 high-ranking leadership positions, localities nationwide have conducted confidence votes at the People's Councils at all levels. However, the results of the confidence votes at the local level do not seem to accurately reflect the reality. Mr. Dao Trong Thi, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, and Children, stated: "Among the confidence votes at the provincial level, no official received less than half of the votes, thus preventing further disciplinary action. At the commune level, in my opinion, there were also cases where the confidence vote was less than half."

Arising from difficulties encountered during the confidence vote process in the National Assembly and People's Councils at all levels, in Notice No. 149 dated December 20, 2013, the Politburo proposed temporarily suspending the confidence vote at the first session of 2014 to conduct research on amending and supplementing Resolution 35 of the National Assembly.

Following the above announcement, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly conducted an initial assessment of the advantages, limitations, and obstacles encountered after the first vote of confidence.

This report will be presented at the 7th session of the 13th National Assembly, taking place in the middle of this year, based on which the National Assembly will propose amendments to Resolution 35.

At the 25th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee, Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan affirmed: “We are not stopping the confidence vote, but only temporarily suspending it during the first session of 2014 to await evaluation, learn from experience, and amend Resolution 35 of the National Assembly. After that, we will agree to continue. This approach is consistent with the general policy and avoids creating shocks for public opinion. We conducted the confidence vote very seriously.”

To ensure that the confidence vote process is effective and genuine, this is the desire of both National Assembly deputies and voters when amending Resolution 35 on the confidence vote.

According to VOV