Vietnam to make history with first female National Assembly leader

By March 29, 2016 | 08:17 pm PT

Vietnam's National Assembly's Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan attends the opening ceremony of the Spring Session of the National Assembly (Parliament) of Vietnam in Hanoi March 21, 2016. : Reuters

The current legislature will soon be voting to fill key leadership positions, and 62-year-old Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan is strongly favored to become the first female chairperson of Vietnam’s National Assembly.

The position will become vacant when the current office-holder, Nguyen Sinh Hung, steps down later today.

Ngan is a member of the current nineteen-member Politburo, and has been a member of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party for four consecutive working terms. She was also the former head of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

She has received the highest rating in the National Assembly’s annual vote of confidence in two consecutive years, winning "high confidence" votes from about 75 percent of legislators in 2013 and nearly 80 percent in 2014.

Vietnam normally selects its new leaders, including the Prime Minister, President and leader of the National Assembly, after the public elects a new legislature. The incoming parliament would then vote on the leadership positions. This year, however, it has abandoned this tradition to install a new leadership and cabinet three months early.