To Lam has served as public security minister since 2016 and has taken a hard-line stance against human rights movements in the country.
Vietnam’s Communist Party has named its public security minister as its next president, state media reported, months after his predecessor resigned as part of a crackdown on corruption.
On Saturday, the party’s central committee elected To Lam, 66, Vietnam News Agency reported.
Lam has served as Minister of Public Security since 2016 and has taken a hard line against the domestic human rights movement.
The party announced in March that President Vo Van Thuong had resigned after just over a year in office, citing “violations” and “deficiencies”.
Mr Tuong is the second president to resign in two years amid a crackdown on corruption that has seen several senior politicians removed and top business leaders put on trial for fraud and corruption.
When he took office, Tuong said he was “determined to fight corruption” and was considered close to Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong, considered the most powerful person in the country.
Thousands of people, including government officials and senior business leaders, have joined Trong’s anti-corruption “furnace” campaign, which has influenced the highest echelons of Vietnamese politics.
“Violations and Shortcomings”
Tran Thanh Manh, 61, has also been named the new head of Vietnam’s parliament, making him one of the country’s four most powerful leaders, state media said.
Mang replaces Buong Dinh Hue, who asked for his resignation last month citing “violations and shortcomings”.
The candidates have been accepted by the party’s central committee and will be formally voted on at the National Assembly next week.
The Central Committee said all supreme leaders “need to be truly united, truly exemplary, and wholeheartedly dedicated to the common cause.”
In April, a Vietnamese court sentenced a real estate tycoon to death for his role in a $12.5 billion financial fraud case, the largest in the country’s history.
Truong My Lan, chairman of major developer Van Tinh Phat, was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violating banking regulations after a trial in Ho Chi Minh City.
Lan’s arrest in October 2022 was one of the most high-profile in an ongoing anti-corruption campaign that began in 2016 and has gathered pace since 2022.
