HANOI: Tens of millions of Vietnamese go to the polls on Sunday (Mar 15) to elect 500 members of the National Assembly from a list of candidates almost exclusively fielded by the ruling Communist Party. The five-yearly elections, in which nearly 73.5 million registered voters will also choose representatives for local councils, are one of the few nods to democratic practice in the tightly controlled one-party state, where the most powerful positions are decided by Communist senior officials ahead of the vote. Nearly 93 per cent of the 864 candidates running for the national parliament are Communist Party members, while 7.5 per cent are independents, according to the national election council, down from 8.5 per cent in 2021, leaving no doubt the party will maintain its overwhelming dominance in the assembly. In the current legislature, the Communist Party, which has ruled the country unopposed for decades, holds 97 per cent of the seats. The parliament has virtually no power to challenge the party’s key decisions, including on personnel, but it has occasionally amended proposed laws. …