Tenth National Congress of The Communist Party of Vietnam - Preparations

Preparations

Preparations for the 10th Congress were led by the Personnel Appointments subcommittee of the 9th Central Committee, probably chaired by General Secretary Nông Đức Mạnh. Mạnh worked closely with the Head of the Commission for Organization and Personnel to prepare a list of nominees for the election of the Central Committee at the upcoming congress. The 12th plenum of the 9th Central Committee, held in July 2005, laid down the principles for the Personnel Appointments subcommittee to work within:

• (i) quality of candidates in terms of qualifications and a "clean" CV
• (ii) reasonable distribution of candidates among different sectors and representations from among the population to ensure total Party leadership in all areas.

After the 12th plenum, the Personnel Appointments subcommittee began discussions with important organizations and individuals within the Party, most notably with the Central Commission for Inspection (which investigates complaints against Party members), party elders Đỗ Mười, Lê Đức Anh, Võ Văn Kiệt, Võ Nguyên Giáp and Nguyễn Đức Tâm, and with the 9th Politburo. The nomination list created in these discussions had to be voted on by the 9th Central Committee. At its 13th plenum, the 9th Central Committee, several changes to the nomination list recommended by Personnel Appointments subcommittee were made; the Central Committee decided to retire 8 out of 14 Politburo members, the largest number of en masse retirements in the history of the Politburo. However, in official pronouncements, this decision was referred to as a "survey", and not an election. Even so, the majority believed the eight people mentioned would retire rather than stay for another term. The retirements of Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyễn Văn An, who was considered a strong contender for the general secretaryship at the 11th Congress, and two leading proteges of Mạnh; the unofficial deputy general secretary Phan Diễn, and the Head of the Commission for Organization and Personnel Trần Đình Hoan, were unexpected.

Some party elders were seeking the removal of Mạnh as general secretary. While Đỗ Mười and Lê Đức Anh supported Mạnh's re-election, Võ Văn Kiệt and Võ Nguyên Giáp opposed him. However, all four of them agreed on retaining Nguyễn Văn An in the 10th Politburo. One point in Mạnh's favour was his lack of grave mistakes during his first tenure, and the lack of a credible opponent. Võ Văn Kiệt supported Nguyễn Minh Triết's candidacy for the general secretaryship, while the retiring prime minister Phan Văn Khải supported a possible candidacy by Nguyễn Văn An, even if the Central Committee had voted for his Politburo retirement in the "survey". Those who supported Mạnh's removal based their campaign on the fact that his son-in-law had worked at PMU 18 Department of the Ministry of Transport during the PMU 18 scandal. A more damaging rumour was that Mạnh had included Nguyễn Việt Tiến, the Deputy Minister of Transport who was implicated in the scandal, on the Central Committee nominee list.Also, Đào Đình Bình, the Minister of Transport, was a close associate of Mạnh. Mạnh was accused of nepotism and of establishing a patronage system for himself within the party and state; his son Nông Quốc Tuấn was elected as Head of Youth Organizations in March 2005, and was thus entitled to attend the 10th Congress. At a meeting with some veteran politicians, Mạnh was asked by Lê Khả Phiêu and Võ Nguyên Giáp to resign from his post and not to run for a seat in the 10th Central Committee – Mạnh, however, refused to resign.

In a proposal to the 11th plenum of the 9th Central Committee, Võ Văn Kiệt suggested democratizing the political system by giving the delegates to a party congress the power to elect the general secretary, the Central Committee and the Central Commission for Inspection, and giving congress delegates ultimate power on all matters put before them at the congress. He called for the reduction of the Central Committee from one-fourth to one-third, holding the elections of state leaders at the National Assembly in the immediate aftermath of a congress (and not a year later), secret ballots for elections, empowering delegates to self-nominate to the Central Committee and merging the offices of President and General Secretary into one. These suggestions, with the exception of holding the National Assembly elections earlier, were rejected at the 11th plenum of the 9th Central Committee in January 2005.

At the 14th plenum of the 9th Central Committee, the Politburo proposed that Mạnh would be appointed president and resign from his post as general secretary to be succeeded by Nguyễn Văn An, while Phan Diễn would be retained for the sake of stability. The proposal was rejected in a formal vote by the 9th plenum, and the Central Committee upheld the results of the "survey". At the unplanned 15th plenum held 14–16 April, which was held due to pressure by Nguyễn Minh Triết, Nguyễn Văn An and Phan Văn Khải, it was decided that delegates at the upcoming congress had the right of self-nomination and that there would competing elections for the posts of general secretary, prime minister and chairman of the National Assembly. The loser of the contest for general secretary would be appointed president. Mạnh and Nguyễn Minh Triết were candidates for the general secretaryship, Nguyễn Tấn Dũng and Nguyễn Sinh Hùng for the prime ministership and Nguyễn Phú Trọng and Trương Tấn Sang for the National Assembly chairmanship. For the first time in the party's history, competing elections were held for offices of power.