By Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen
Hanoi (Reuters) – The Communist Party of Vietnam has re-elected its 76-year-old chief Nguyen Phu Trong for a rare third five-year term on Sunday as the Southeast Asian country has been battling its biggest coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began .
Trong, who emerged at the top of a power struggle at the last congress in 2016 and led a “fiery furnace” crackdown on corruption in the past five years, received an exception to party rules that say people over 65 should retiring, consolidating his position as one of the strongest and oldest leaders in the country for decades.
“Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong was elected secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, mandate XIII,” reported the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
Trong’s re-election as party general secretary took place at a five-year party congress in Hanoi, where 1,600 party delegates from all over Vietnam are concluding eight days of meetings, mostly behind closed doors, to choose a new leadership team, with the aim of strengthening Vietnam’s continued economic success – and the legitimacy of the party government.
((For a profile on Trong, click here https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-politics-trong-idUSKBN2A006T))
Vietnam has no supreme ruler and is officially led by four “pillars”: the head of its Communist Party, the most powerful post; a president; a prime minister; and the president of the National Assembly.
Although the rise to the highest levels of Vietnamese politics is governed by party regulations, in reality the highly secretive process revolves around consensus building and the dispute over control of the decision-making Politburo.
This means that exceptions to the rules can be granted – especially if consensus on the main candidates cannot be reached.
China’s President and Communist Party chief Xi Jinping sent a message of congratulations to Trong on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
HANOI SHUTS SCHOOLS
Since taking office in 2011, Trong has built a power base that saw him emerge at the top in a confrontation with former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the last congress in 2016.
His crackdown on corruption, described by government critics as politically motivated, has resulted in dozens of high-ranking officials, including a member of the Politburo, being sentenced to long prison terms.
Trong’s new selection by ruling Communist Party members came as Vietnam battled a new outbreak of COVID-19 that infected at least 221 people and spread to at least eight cities and provinces across the country, including the southern economic center Ho Chi Minh City and capital, Hanoi.
After the new outbreak was detected, state media reported that the congress would end on Monday, a day ahead of schedule.
The Ministry of Health notified 14 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday morning, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 1,781, with 35 deaths.
Hanoi officials announced on Sunday that all schools in the city would close after closing several residential areas and a factory in the northern Hai Duong province, the epicenter of the outbreak, as the first cases of community transmission were detected in almost two months. . Last week.
(Reporting by Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Writing by James Pearson; Editing by William Mallard and Raju Gopalakrishnan)