To Lam, unanimously elected as president by Vietnam Parliament

Vietnam’s Communist Party’s Secretary General To Lam, was unanimously elected by parliament as the country’s president for a five-year term.

The parliament said that all 495 deputies present today National Assembly session endorsed the Communist Party’s nomination, while five lawmakers were absent. The election of To Lam as the president marks a shift in Vietnam’s power structure, wherein the positions of party secretary and state president have traditionally been held by different people.