VietNamNet Bridge – Nearly VND700 billion ($35
million) has been allocated to local governments and central agencies to
prepare the National Assembly (NA) and People’s Council elections, which will
take place on May 22.

The Ministry of
Home Affairs organized a press conference on April 27, on the organization of
the NA and People’s Council elections.

The Ministry’s
Director of the Local Government Department, Nguyen Huu Duc, said that
previously, the NA election and the People’s Council election were often held
two years apart from each other. This time, they will take place at the same
time, so the operation is more complicated. There are more than 91,000 vote
precincts. Around 4,000-5,000 people are involved in election preparation in
each province.

According to a
representative from the Ministry of Finance, the total funding for election
preparation was estimated at VND700 billion by March 3. Of the total, VND635.7
billion was allocated to provinces and cities, and VND26.3 billion to
ministries and central agencies. An additional VND39 billion dong is required.

Minister of Home
Affairs, Tran Van Tuan, said that locations that are difficult to finance will
be assisted to organize the elections as scheduled.

For the elections
on May 22, there will be 599 committees for People’s Council elections at
districts, 10,630 committees for People’s Council elections at communes and
91,000 voting precincts in 63 provinces and cities.

Constituents will
cast their votes to elect 500 NA deputies, over 3,200 deputies of provincial
People’s Councils, over 21,000 deputies of district-level People’s Councils and
over 280,000 deputies of People’s Councils at the commune level.

PV