Aside from normal Vietnamese electors casting their votes during Sunday’s election, ‘special’ citizens, including detainees, rehab attendants, and patients at hospitals were also given the opportunity to exercise their civil rights.

According to Tran Ngoc Du, an official at the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, over 9,500 junkies at 17 rehabilitation and community centers across the southern metropolis voted on Sunday.

At larger facilities with over 1,000 attendants, security was exclusively tightened to ensure order for the electoral process, Du added.

At the Chi Hoa Prison in Ho Chi Minh City, elections were organized early in the morning for 2,266 detainees to cast their ballots.

After the opening ceremony, which was attended by Colonel Dinh Thanh Nhan, deputy chief of the municipal Department of Police, along with other detention officers, ballot boxes were carried directly to every cell at the prison.

All of the 136 detainees at the detention facility of the Department of Police in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau were given the chance to fulfill their civil rights.

They were also informed of all information regarding the profiles and backgrounds of all candidates prior to the election day.

Similar ballots were organized at several detention facilities in the central city of Da Nang and the north-central province of Nghe An.

According to Colonel Tran Sy Phang, a prison officer at the Nghe An Department of Police, said that photos and profiles of the candidates were hung in every detention room for the suspects to read and make their decision.

A patient at the Quan Son General Hospital in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa casts her vote on her bed. Photo: Tuoi Tre  

A mobile ballot box was carried across the Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for patients to cast their votes.

Pham Hoang Nam, an official at the infirmary, stated that 19 patients from the gynecologic oncology and postoperative departments participated in the election.

Operators of a general hospital in Quan Son District in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa joined hands with local officials to allow the patients to cast their votes right beside their beds.

According to To Vinh Sau, who was receiving treatment at the infirmary, he was admitted to the emergency room before the election day.

“Under the guidance of the hospital’s directors and local authorities, I was able to partake in the election despite my poor health,” Sau said.

Vietnamese citizens, from 18 years old and above, cast their ballots at 184 electoral units across the country on Sunday to select members of the 14^th National Assembly and People’s Council at three local levels, province/city, district and commune/ward.

The process was officially scheduled to run without pause from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. The schedule could be changed in some cases, but was not permitted to begin earlier than 5:00 am or end later than 9:00 pm.

Nguyen Hanh Phuc, chief of the National Election Council Office, confirmed at 10:00 pm on Sunday that about 98.7 percent of citizens 18 years old and above had finished voting, ending a successful electoral process.

There were over 69 million people eligible to vote in the national election.

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