One party on ballot as Vietnam votes

VIETNAM: A painting of US President Barack Obama emblazoned with the word "hope" hangs behind the desk of Le Quoc Quan, a would-be parliamentarian in Vietnam.

"I like democracy," says Quan, who attempted in vain to break the mould in the country's one-party political system by nominating himself as a candidate for national legislative elections set for Sunday.

His fate, he says, was decided not by voters but by a meeting of local members of the ruling Communist Party in his constituency in Hanoi.

"They made a resolution. They had to take me out" of the running, he says, because allowing his name on the ballot would be dangerous: "I might get in."

Vietnam's authoritarian leadership has ruled out an end to the one-party system and cemented its hold on power at a secretive party congress in January after Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung fended off a leadership challenge. Hanoi, AFP