Avoid turning contact with voters into activities of receiving citizens and handling petitions.

Some initial innovations

On the morning of April 18, in Vinh city, the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province coordinated with the Standing Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of the province to organize a conference to improve the quality and effectiveness of the National Assembly deputies' contact with voters. Photo: Mai Hoa

Comrades: Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairwoman of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee;Thai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation;Tran Nhat Minh - full-time National Assembly delegate chaired the conference.

Also attending the conference were: Major General Tran Duc Thuan - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee for National Defense and Security; Hoang Minh Hieu - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee for Law; Nguyen Nhu Khoi - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; leaders of the Provincial People's Council committees...

Election of delegatesNational AssemblyIn the 15th term, 2021 - 2026, Nghe An elected 13 National Assembly deputies; including 6 deputies working at the Central level and 7 deputies working at the local level.

After nearly 1 year of operation, despite the very special context due to the impact of the epidemicCovid-19, but the Provincial National Assembly Delegation has made some innovations in voter contact activities, such as organizing direct and online voter contact to suit the Covid-19 epidemic situation. The work of synthesizing opinions and recommendations ofvotersensure full and forward to competent authorities for settlement.

Full-time National Assembly delegate Tran Nhat Minh reports on the National Assembly's voter contact activities since the beginning of the term. Photo: Mai Hoa

Provincial National Assembly DelegationIt has also innovated the work of monitoring, urging, pursuing the resolution and response to voters' opinions and recommendations from all levels and sectors to ensure higher quality and efficiency.

On the other hand, the results of the resolution through the Standing Committee of the People's Council and the Standing Committee of the Fatherland Front Committee at the district level are sent to the grassroots level to voters.

ComradeVo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairwoman of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee chaired the discussion at the conference. Photo: Mai Hoa

Besides affirming the movements in voter contact activities, the opinions presented at the conference also frankly pointed out many shortcomings and limitations.

The issue that many opinions raised is that the form of voter contact is not diverse and rich. Voters' opinions at voter contact conferences mainly reflect their own, their family's or their community's interests, but there are not many opinions that contribute to the development of policies and guidelines.

The information and response to the results of handling voters' petitions sometimes do not reach the petitioner...

ComradeNguyen Nhu Khoi - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, proposed a number of solutions to improve the quality and effectiveness of voter contact, including increasing thematic contacts according to the expertise of each delegate and selecting key areas; at the same time, it is necessary to choose the time and location to organize voter contact in a direction that is more convenient for voters than for delegates. Photo: Mai Hoa

Avoid "turning" voter meetings into citizen meetings

To overcome the current shortcomings and limitations in voter contact work, at the conference, many opinions were suggested and solutions were proposed to make this activity more effective.

According to many delegates, to avoid "turning" the meeting into a meeting with the people, resolving complaints and denunciations of voters and people at the meetings, National Assembly delegates need to choose "hot" content, of interest to voters to inform and suggest, guiding voters to focus on giving opinions; at the same time, promote the role of chairing and running the conference.

It is suggested that meetings with voters and invited participants with National Assembly deputies should include representatives from the Inspectorate at all levels.

Also related to the composition of the participants in the meetings with voters and National Assembly deputies, there are opinions that there is a situation where some departments and provincial levels send representatives just for show, so the process of answering and explaining voters' opinions in their departments is not well understood and the answers are not of good quality, affecting the image of officials in the hearts of voters. This is an issue that departments and branches need to learn from.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Chuc - Head of the District Party Committee's Mass Mobilization Committee, Chairman of the Yen Thanh District Fatherland Front Committee proposed that departments and branches select officials to join National Assembly deputies in meeting voters to have a firm grasp of issues related to the sector in order to answer voters accurately. Photo: Mai Hoa

To avoid the situation of "professional" voters and representative voters at voter meetings, many delegates recommended that the Provincial National Assembly Delegation should innovate the form of voter meetings in the direction of increasing thematic meetings, selecting topics of interest and concern to voters and key areas to organize meetings; associated with changing the time of voter meetings, which can be organized on Saturdays, Sundays and outside of office hours...

In addition to organizing systematic conferences, National Assembly deputies need to increase independent and individual contacts to collect opinions and accurately and objectively reflect them from voters.

Some opinions suggested that it is necessary to integrate meetings with National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels to save time for organizing agencies and reduce time and travel for voters.

Major generalTran Duc Thuan - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee on National Defense and Security shared some information and solutions to more effectively resolve voters' petitions. Photo: Mai Hoa

Research to innovate

Concluding the conference, Comrade Thai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation said that in order to bring the activities of National Assembly deputies to meet with voters in accordance with regulations, promote the role of a bridge between National Assembly deputies and voters and functional agencies at all levels, it is necessary to study and innovate the form of organizing voter meetings, in which, try to build plans and programs for voter meetings earlier and send them to localities to inform voters in advance.

ComradeThai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation affirmed that many opinions raised at the conference will be accepted and implemented immediately, some opinions need to be recommended to all levels for direction, creating a common consensus. Photo: Mai Hoa

Along with that, National Assembly deputies, before meeting voters, need to review voters' petitions as well as the settlement of the previous session by all levels to inform voters.

On the other hand, National Assembly deputies must be proactive and regularly contact localities and voters, proactively propose to diversify forms of contact with voters to grasp many opinions, recommendations and proposals from voters; at the same time, the Standing Committee of the People's Council and the Standing Committee of the Fatherland Front Committee at the district level also need to proactively grasp the situation and public opinion in the locality to propose the National Assembly delegation to have thematic contacts and propose key contact areas.

The Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation also hopes that the Standing Committee of the People's Council and the Standing Committee of the Fatherland Front Committee at the district level will pay attention to choosing the location and time to organize the conference to meet voters appropriately, creating the most favorable conditions for voters, while overcoming the problem of "professional" voters and representative voters.

Regarding the settlement of voters' petitions, in addition to the responsibilities of all levels and sectors, National Assembly deputies need to closely follow voters' opinions and concerns to proactively meet and discuss with all levels and sectors to find effective solutions.

Delegates discuss on the sidelines of the conference. Photo: Mai Hoa

In addition, promote the application of information technology and digital transformation in voter contact activities, synthesize, monitor, and respond to the settlement of voters' petitions at all levels and inform voters of the settlement results.

Many issues and reflections at the conference under the authority of the National Assembly and the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee were also continued to be received by the Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation to propose solutions to improve the quality of voter contact.