Tough Vietnam Vetting Curbs Independent Parliamentary Candidates
- Number of approved self-nominees at lowest level since 1997
- Vietnamese to elect 500 new lawmakers in Sunday vote
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Vietnam’s Communist Party has approved the lowest number of independent candidates for National Assembly elections in nearly 20 years, at a time of rising frustration with the one-party political system.
While 162 people initially nominated themselves to stand for parliament, only 11 made it through a short-listing process held by a party body known as the Fatherland Front, to the final list of 870 vying for 500 seats.