Vietnam parliament convenes to confirm new state leaders

Vietnam's parliament convened on Monday for a new session in which it will confirm top state leaders including the president and prime minister, posts already selected by the ruling Communist Party but not yet announced.

Vietnam's 500-seat National Assembly serves mainly to ratify decisions made by the ruling party, although it occasionally amends proposed legislation.

Its members were elected last month in a vote that saw the Communist Party win nearly 97 percent of seats.

The newly elected delegates are expected to confirm leaders tapped by senior cadres at the party's twice-a-decade congress in January.

Top leader To Lam was reaffirmed as general secretary at the congress, but the party did not publicly announce the other main "pillars" of Vietnam's collective leadership structure.

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Lam is also widely expected to become president, unifying leadership of the party and the state as President Xi Jinping has done in neighbouring China.

The prime minister and head of the National Assembly will also be confirmed by lawmakers' votes.

Lam would be the first person to have secured the top two jobs at a party congress, rather than stepping in following a holder's death.