Nguyen Van Pha (middle) and Nguyen Si Dung at the talks

On the sideline of
the talks on the upcoming NA and People’s Council election (scheduled on May
22) in Hanoi on
March 16, Pha said that “if local constituents request, the local election
organizing board will make public the asset declaration of candidates.”

Pha said “candidates
who are sincere for the elections would not hide their assets. If constituents
detect candidates’ deceit, they would not vote for them.”

However, he
admitted that “it is necessary to have a more effective way for constituents to
have access to asset declarations of candidates.”

“According to the
current regulations, there is no way for the people to have broad access to
asset declarations of candidates. To verify the declarations, constituents must
ask competent agencies,” Pha said.

He noted that the
asset declarations must be made public to guarantee the right of supervision of
constituents but it must ensure personal secrets of candidates.

“In Japan,
asset declarations are kept at the Parliament Library. Anybody can read or take
notes but they are not allowed to take photo or film,” he said.

Nguyen Si Dung,
Vice chief of the NA Office, said that the ratio of full-time NA deputies will
increase from 26 percent in the 12^th tenure to 33 in the next tenure
while the total number of NA deputies will not change – 500.

Dung emphasized
that for the upcoming elections, the NA and People’s Council are
“representative institutions” which depend a half on authorized people
(deputies) and a half on who grant the authority – constituents. The
constituents, therefore, need to understand their right and duties and
positively take part in the elections.

Simply explaining
about this, Pha said “that constituents should cast the vote themselves and
show their personal will in building the government.”

The deadline for
submitting application for the NA election is March 18 and it is March 23 for
the People’s Council election.

PV