Vietnamese National Assembly Elections
One-party electionsAS OF 2026-09-08 · 16 CONTESTS · National Assembly, 15 March 2026 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
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Vietnam's National Assembly has held sixteen elections since the first, contested by five parties, met in Hanoi in January 1946. Every one after 1960 ran under the sole umbrella of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, and for nearly three decades that meant one list taking every seat. Since 1992 non-party and independent candidates have been allowed to stand, and since 2011 to nominate themselves, though the Fatherland Front still vets who actually reaches the ballot and the Communist Party has never won less than 96% of the seats.
Source: Wikipedia election articles · as of 2026-09-08
Seats
500
how many the Assembly now holds
Elections since 1946
16
2026 turnout
99.7%
last election, 15 March 2026
Latest
2026
Communist Party of Vietnam largest · Lê Minh Hưng
The chronology
Every Vietnamese and North Vietnamese National Assembly election from the founding vote of 1946 to the 15 March 2026 election, newest first. From 1960 to 1987 the Vietnamese Fatherland Front was the only body allowed to nominate candidates and took every seat; since 1992 non-party and, from 2011, self-nominated candidates have been allowed to stand on a field the Fatherland Front still vets.
Self-nomination on a vetted field · 2016-
The ballot has counted self-nominated candidates as their own line since 2016, when 11 stood and 2 won; by 2026 only 5 of 864 candidates were self-nominated. The Communist Party has not fallen below 96% of the seats in any of these elections, and the field it faces is set by the Fatherland Front before campaigning ever begins.
Đổi Mới opens a narrow door · 1992-2011
Non-party and independent candidates were allowed to stand for the first time in 1992, six years into the Đổi Mới economic reforms, though every candidate still had to be nominated through the Fatherland Front. Independents and non-party members won a few dozen seats a cycle at most, and from 2011 a candidate could nominate themselves rather than be put forward by an organisation, though officials cut the self-nominated field hard before it reached the ballot.
One list, one front · 1960-1987
From 1960 the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, the Communist Party's umbrella organisation, was the only body allowed to nominate candidates, and it took every seat at every election, first in North Vietnam alone and then, from the reunification vote of 1976, across the whole country. The 1976 assembly seated 249 members elected in the former North and 243 in the former South under the same single list.
The founding assembly · 1946
Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam held its first National Assembly election on 6 January 1946 in the areas it controlled, and five parties won seats: the Indochinese Communist Party took the most, followed by the Democratic Party, the Socialist Party, the Vietnam Nationalist Party (Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng) and the Revolutionary League. The Viet Minh ran the election and the ballot was not secret, and a further seventy seats went to the Nationalist Party and the Revolutionary League by pre-election agreement rather than by vote.
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout
Turnout has stayed inside a three-point band since 1960, dipping only to 97.96% in 1981.
The ruling party's seat share
The Communist Party and its Fatherland Front predecessors have taken every seat, or all but a handful of them, at every election since 1960.
Records & superlatives
Highest turnout
99.7%
2026, of the elections with a recorded figure
Lowest turnout
98.8%
2002
Most seats won
485
Communist Party of Vietnam, 2021
Highest turnout
99.9%
North Vietnam's first Fatherland Front election under Ho Chi Minh returned the highest turnout on file.
Lowest turnout
97.96%
The lowest turnout on record for this hub, though still officially above 97 percent, a floor these elections have never fallen below.
Most self-nominated candidates
11
The 2016 ballot was the first to report self-nominated candidates as their own line: 11 ran, and 2 won seats.
Self-nomination filtered hardest
15 of 82
82 people applied to stand as self-nominated candidates in 2011. Officials allowed 15 onto the ballot, and 4 of them were elected.
How Vietnamese elections work
One party, one front
The Communist Party of Vietnam is the only party the constitution recognises. Every candidate, whatever their party status, is nominated through the Vietnamese Fatherland Front before appearing on a ballot.
Independents on a narrow field
Non-party and independent candidates have been allowed to stand since 1992. They have won a few dozen seats a cycle at most, out of several hundred.
Self-nomination, then a filter
Since 2011 a would-be candidate can put themselves forward rather than be nominated by an organisation, but the Fatherland Front's vetting rounds cut the field hard before it reaches the ballot: 82 applied in 2011 and 15 were allowed to run.
The Assembly elects the leadership, not the ballot
The National Assembly elects the state president and prime minister after each election. The Communist Party's general secretary, chosen separately by the party congress, holds the actual power regardless of who sits in those seats.