Eyes on Vietnam's Nguyen Tan Dung as top leaders face confidence vote

Vietnam's leaders faced their first confidence vote in the communist-controlled parliament yesterday, as the authoritarian regime seeks to defuse growing public anger over corruption and a lack of political accountability.

The vote - to be held annually - was approved by the one-party state's rubber-stamp legislature in November and requires most senior politicians, including the prime minister and president, to win support from lawmakers.

The process has been hailed in the official press as part of a new commitment to transparency and accountability, but observers saw little threat to the communist hierarchy and expected the results to be decided in advance behind closed doors.

It will not be "a proper vote", said Nguyen Minh Thuyet, a former deputy who called for a confidence vote on Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in 2010.

Even so, coupled with a recent government call for public consultation over proposed constitutional amendments, the vote indicates that the party is attempting to respond to rising public dissatisfaction, experts said. "This does represent an effort by the party and state to shore up its faltering legitimacy," said Professor Jonathan London at Hong Kong's City University.

While it is highly unlikely that the vote will result in any change, "even symbolically it is an important event, in Vietnam's evolution and in the evolution of the National Assembly," he added.