Disgraced leader's fall from grace complete as Da Nang kicks him out of legislature

The disgraced top leader of Vietnam's central city of Da Nang was voted out of the municipal legislature on Friday, essentially hammering the final nail into the career's coffin of a once-rising political star.

Nguyen Xuan Anh lost his roles as both chairman and member of the People's Council two months after being fired as the city's all-powerful Communist Party chief.

Anh had asked to be absent from the meeting on Friday, where all 48 legislators present voted to remove him from his position and the legislature.

The result will need approval from the legislative National Assembly, but that should be a formality. Anh has not attending council meetings since mid-November, citing family affairs.

Anh’s fall from grace started in late September when the Central Inspection Committee, the Party's top watchdog, accused him of misconduct, mismanagement and dishonesty.

The committee said that Anh had violated the Party’s democratic centralism principles by making multiple decisions without consulting others.

He had set a bad example by accepting a car and two houses as gifts from local businesses, the committee said, while his academic credentials have also been brought into question.

He had displayed signs of nepotism, the Party said. Anh has also been dismissed from the Party Central Committee, one of the country’s most powerful bodies.

Anh, a former journalist and son of the former chair of the Central Inspection Committee, got into politics early. In October 2015, at the age of 39, he was elected Party chief of Da Nang, which is often considered the third most important city in Vietnam after Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Regarding his political rise, analysts said the major challenge for young leaders in Vietnam would be the formal and informal institutional arrangements within the state that limited the efficiency, efficacy and transparency of government.