Turnout: 99.70%
About this election
Vietnam held elections to its 500-seat National Assembly on 15 March 2026, choosing the deputies of the 16th legislature. The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) won 482 seats, with the remaining 18 going to "non-partisan" deputies who, in practice, are also vetted and approved within the state-controlled framework. Reported turnout was 99.7%. As in every Vietnamese election, there was no opposition and no competitive choice between rival parties; the vote served to renew the membership of a body firmly under the direction of the Communist Party. The new National Assembly went on to formalise the country's top leadership for the 2026-2031 term.
Vietnam is a one-party socialist republic in which the Communist Party holds a constitutionally guaranteed monopoly on political power. Since the doi moi reforms launched in 1986, the country has combined tight political control with a fast-growing, increasingly market-oriented economy. Recent years have been dominated by an intense anti-corruption drive — the so-called "blazing furnace" campaign — which has felled numerous senior officials and reshaped the leadership, and by the consolidation of power around To Lam, who rose from the security apparatus to become CPV General Secretary.
Members of the National Assembly are elected for five-year terms from multi-member constituencies. Candidates are screened through the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, a Communist Party umbrella body, which determines who may stand; the great majority are party members, alongside a small number of approved non-partisans and a handful of self-nominated candidates who rarely succeed. With the field curated in advance, the election confirms a pre-selected slate rather than offering a contest between competing platforms.
The Fatherland Front's vetting process is central to how Vietnamese elections work. Through a series of "consultative conferences," it filters the pool of would-be candidates down to a final list, ensuring that those on the ballot are acceptable to the party. Self-nomination is permitted in theory, and independent or activist candidates occasionally attempt to run, but they are almost always screened out before polling day.
Constitutionally the highest organ of state power, the National Assembly elects the country's top office-holders, passes legislation and approves the budget. In practice it ratifies decisions taken by the Communist Party's Politburo and Central Committee. Its sessions, held roughly twice a year, have become somewhat more visible and occasionally see pointed questioning of ministers, but the body does not function as an independent check on party rule.
Official turnout in Vietnamese elections is consistently reported near or above 99%, and voting is treated as a civic duty, with proxy voting on behalf of family members widely documented. Independent observers regard these figures, and the election itself, as a demonstration of the party-state's organisational reach rather than as a measure of competitive political support, since no alternative to the Communist Party is permitted.
The 16th National Assembly convened for its inaugural session in April 2026 and confirmed the senior leadership for the new term, with To Lam as State President, Le Minh Hung as Prime Minister and Tran Thanh Man as Chairman of the National Assembly. The line-up reflected the balance struck among the party's leading figures rather than any electoral verdict.
Every National Assembly election in Vietnam has returned an overwhelming Communist Party majority, with a small bloc of approved non-partisans, and turnout reported at near-universal levels. The 2026 vote followed that long-established pattern, its significance lying not in any change of direction but in the renewal of the institutions through which the party governs.
Behind the political continuity lies one of Asia's most dynamic economies. Decades after the doi moi reforms opened the country to the market, Vietnam has become a major manufacturing and export hub, a leading beneficiary of companies diversifying supply chains away from China, and one of the fastest-growing economies in the region. Sustaining that growth — while managing inequality, an ageing workforce and the demands of further integration into the global economy — is a central preoccupation of the party-state the National Assembly serves.
Vietnam pursues what its diplomats call "bamboo diplomacy": rooted but flexible, balancing relationships with the major powers. It has deepened ties with the United States, elevating the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, while carefully managing its complex, sometimes tense relations with neighbouring China, including disputes in the South China Sea. The leadership confirmed around the 2026 election inherits the task of steering that balancing act amid intensifying great-power competition.
National Election Council of Vietnam / Vietnamese Fatherland Front.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.