The Chairperson of the National Assembly of Vietnam, formerly the Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of Vietnam from 1946 to 1981, is the legislative speaker of the Vietnamese parliament, the National Assembly. The parliament is, in the words of the constitution, "the highest representative organ of the people; the highest organ of state power ..., the sole organ that has constitutional and legislative rights". The chairman is elected by the deputies of the National Assembly in the first season of the assembly's tenure. The Standing Committee, of which the chairman is a member, is a permanent body which controls the activities of the National Assembly when it is not in session. The chairman and the other members of the Standing Committee have to resign from their posts when the National Assembly dissolves itself, which it normally does every fifth year. The chairman presides over the sessions of the National Assembly and authenticates laws and resolutions passed by the National Assembly by signing them. The chairman leads the activities of the Standing Committee and organises its external relations with other state bodies and is responsible for maintaining cordial relations between the members of the Standing Committee. The deputies of the National Assembly have the right to question the chairman. The powers and prestige of the office of chairman has varied throughout the years. For instance, the two first officeholders Nguyễn Văn Tố and Bùi Bằng Đoàn were not members of the Communist Party, while Trường Chinh, the fourth chairman, was ranked second in the Politburo hierarchy. Still, of the ten people who have chaired the National Assembly, five of them have been members of the Politburo. The current chairperson is Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân, and she is ranked third in the Politburo hierarchy.
History
The first chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly was the scholar Nguyễn Văn Tố; he was not a member of the Communist Party. On 3 March 1946, under the chairmanship of Nguyễn Văn Tố, the National Assembly formed the first government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Nguyễn Văn Tố was succeeded in office on 9 November 1946 by Bùi Bằng Đoàn, a poet and another non-Communist Party member. While he was never a member of the Communist Party, he was a committed revolutionary. Tôn Đức Thắng succeeded Bùi Bằng Đoàn as chairman in 1955, and was the first chairman to be a member of the Communist Party. Trường Chinh became the fourth and longest-serving chairman of the National Assembly in Vietnamese history, holding the post from 1960 to 1981, when he became chairman of the State Council, a newly established post. Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, a Southerner, succeeded Trường in 1981, as chairman, but he was not a member of the Politburo. Nguyễn Hữu Thọ stepped down as chairman in 1987, and was succeeded by Lê Quang Đạo, another non-Politburo member. As with Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, Lê Quang Đạo's tenure lasted one term. Nông Đức Mạnh was elected chairman in 1992, and held office until 2001 Nông was the first chairman who came from a minority background, the Tày, and was the first chairman since Trường who was a Politburo member. Nông stepped down in 2001, and was succeeded by Nguyễn Văn An, who served as chairman from 2001 until 2006. On 26 June 2006Nguyễn Phú Trọng was elected chairman with a majority of 84.58% of the National Assembly deputies in favour. Nguyễn Phú Trọng stepped down in 2011 because of his election to the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and was succeeded by Nguyễn Sinh Hùng. Nguyễn Sinh Hùng stepped down on 31 March 2016, and was replaced by Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân. She's the first woman to hold the office.
