Members of the NA Standing Committee debated the draft Ordinance on the Exercise of Democracy in Communes, Wards and Townships on January 29.
With 26 articles arranged in seven chapters, the draft Ordinance perpetuates the Regulation on the exercise of democracy in communes, wards and townships, issued together with the Government’s Decree No. 79/2003/ND-CP with the aim of expanding and promoting the people’s exercise of democracy through representative and direct democracy. At the same time, it extends the scope of and further clarifies forms and mechanisms for exercising grassroots democracy.
Worthy of note, the draft Ordinance requires commune-level administrations to publicize land plannings, plannings on population quarters and resettlement work; responsibilities and tasks of commune cadres; and results of votes of confidence on commune-level People’s Council chairmen and People’s Committee presidents and vice presidents.
It empowers the people to discuss and decide on several issues, including construction of infrastructure and public facilities with people contributions, and election and dismissal of members of People’s Inspection Boards and Community Investment Supervision Boards.
The people will supervise commune-level People’s Council deputies, commune and village cadres and state officials and employees working or residing in localities.
The draft Ordinance specifies responsibilities of commune-level administrations and cadres for the practical exercise of democracy, specifically:
Regarding the time limit and duration for publicization of documents, the draft Ordinance requires commune-level administrations to publicize documents within two days after they are adopted, promulgated or received from superior agencies and post up prescribed documents at their head offices of commune-level administrations for at least 30 consecutive days.
Regarding the validity of people’s decisions, the draft Ordinance says that a decision would be valid if it is approved by more than half of the total number of voters or household representatives.
The draft Ordinance also provides for annual votes of confidence on People’s Council chairmen and People’s Committee presidents and vice presidents, saying that these votes would be held by the standing boards of commune-level Vietnam Fatherland Front committees. If the number of confidence votes account for below 50%, the voted persons would be released from office.-