VietNamNet Bridge - Most lawmakers agreed Saturday that the planned trial abolition of district and ward People’s Councils and the popular election of commune People’s Committee chairmen should be restricted.

NA deputies during a discussion session.

Deputy Danh Ut, Kien Giang Province, said a restricted trial was needed to avoid unnecessary panic in the electorate.

The models could be extended to more localities at the appropriate time, he said.

The Government wants the assembly to allow the abolition of People’s Council at 10 localities in 10 cities and provinces and the popular election of People’s Committee chairmen at 385 of Viet Nam’s 9,100 communes.

Details such as the time allowed for the trial of the new system and the criteria required to ensure higher-quality People’s Committees were also discussed during the morning plenary session with the assembly’s deputy chairman, Uong Chu Luu, presiding.

The People’s Committees act as local managers for the Government.

Change needed

Interior Minister Tran Van Tuan explained the success of People’s Councils as representatives who speak for the people.

But the model included unavoidable faults that made it no longer appropriate to the country’s development, he said.

A major shortcoming was the duplication of organisations and responsibilities.

The minister said the trial of popularly-elected grassroots People’s Committee chairmen was intended to help make them better managers.

But the time allowed for the transition from an appointed hierarchy to a democratically elected person needed to be set together with the gathering of concrete evidence to show the system’s effectiveness before the pilot project could be extended.

The minister said the criteria required for candidates seeking election to highland People’s Committees would be lower than their urban and lowland peers.

Criminal Code

The assembly also debated proposed changes to the Criminal Code.

The proposed changes would reduce the number of offences punishable by the death penalty from 29 to 17.

Deputies from Da Nang City; central Quang Nam Province and northern Thai Nguyen Province argued against the abolition of the death penalty for the crime of corruption (Article 278) and bribe taking (Article 279).

Deputy Le Thi Nga also argued against the abolition of capital punishment for people involved in the production and trade of tainted or bogus cooking and medicines.

Tran Thi Quoc Khanh, a member of the National Assembly’s Environment and Science Committee said that the Criminal Code should include more serious penalties for domestic and child abuse offences, given that these cases were becoming more numerous.

Deputy Nguyen Thi Tuyen of Ha Noi indicated that there were loopholes in the law that gave defendants the opportunity to slip through the legal system based on technicality. She was supported by Nguyen Hong Son who argued that in business activities, the line between innocence and guilt was very vague.

Before ending the discussions, the deputies poured over the draft law governing Viet Nam’s overseas representative offices.

(Source: VNS)