Voters went to the polls Sunday to elect new members to Vietnam's National Assembly in a Communist Party-controlled election that is unlikely to have a major impact on the direction of government policy.Eighty-three percent of the candidates are party members and all the non-party candidates have been screened by the Fatherland Front, a powerful party umbrella organization.
Although 30 self-nominated candidates are running, no other political parties are allowed to participate.
"The National Assembly is increasingly exerting its influence over government policy," said Jonathan Pincus, chief economist with the United Nations Development Program in Hanoi. "But the election itself is not an important milestone in the process of political change."
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