Vo Van Thuong accused of violating Communist Party rules and quits after only one year in the job
Vietnam's president, Vo Van Thuong, has stepped down after little more than a year in office. Photograph: Richard A Brooks/APThe Vietnamese Communist Party has accepted the resignation of President Vo Van Thuong, the government said on Wednesday, in a sign of political turmoil that could hurt foreign investors’ confidence in the country.
The president holds a largely ceremonial role but is one of the top four political positions in the southeast Asian nation.The committee's meeting preceded an extraordinary session of Vietnam's rubber-stamping parliament scheduled on Thursday, when deputies are expected to confirm the party's decisions.
Mr Thuong quit days after Vietnamese police announced the arrest for alleged corruption a decade ago of a former head of central Vietnam’s Quang Ngai province, who served while Mr Thuong was party chief there. Last year, when former president Nguyen Xuan Phuc quit after the party blamed him for “violations and wrongdoing” by officials under his control, it took one-and-a-half months for lawmakers to appoint Mr Thuong as his successor.
Foreign investors’ net sales in the first two days of the week amounted to about $80 million , according to Mirae Asset Securities, a broker.