The Communist Party of Vietnam has agreed to nominate its general secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, as president of the Southeast Asian country, Vietnam’s government said on Wednesday.
Former State President Tran Dai Quang died on September 21 after a prolonged illness, leaving open the position of Vietnam’s head of state.
“The central committee agreed unanimously to propose that the National Assembly vote on the nomination of comrade Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, as president,” the government said in an official statement on its website.
Vietnam is officially led by four top leaders: its president, prime minister, the chief of its Party and the national assembly chair.
If approved, Trong will become the first Vietnamese leader to hold the two titles since founding president and revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh.
Trong, 74, was Chairman of the National Assembly from June 2006 to July 2011 and assumed office as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam in January 2011.
A vote on the nomination will be put to Vietnam’s lawmaking National Assembly which is in session later this month.
No other candidates have been proposed for the job.