Vietnam picks youngest Politburo member to be president candidate

The youngest member of the Politburo, Vo Van Thuong, aged 52, is now seen as one of the likely contenders to be the next president of Vietnam when the next party congress is held in 2026. Vietnam’s National Assembly approved the nomination of the two-time Politburo member by the party’s Central Committee to replace Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong. His appointment as president is seen by some analysts as an attempt to strengthen the party and ensure those holding the levers of power are steeped in ideology. The vote followed the dismissals of two deputy prime ministers in January. Thuong is a close ally of Trong and has replaced Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who stepped down in January after assuming political responsibility for the “violations and shortcomings” involving graft cases related to a manufacturer of Covid-19 test kits and repatriation flights.