Voters in Vietnam cast their ballots yesterday for members of the National Assembly, the country's top legislative body that serves mainly to ratify decisions by the ruling Communist Party.
The Southeast Asian nation of 100 million is both an economic success story, boasting eight percent growth last year, and a repressive one-party state that often jails its critics.
Out of 864 candidates for the 500-seat parliament, only 65 are not members of the Communist Party, down from 74 in the last vote five years ago.
Patriotic red-and-yellow banners fluttered from lampposts and traffic lights in the capital Hanoi where well-dressed senior citizens were some of the first to vote.
"I do expect top leaders after this election will make major changes to make our country better," Nguyen Thi Kim, 73, told AFP at a polling station set up in a community room of a high-rise residential block in Hanoi.
But in a country where major policies and projects are decided by senior cadres, many citizens feel lukewarm about elections.
"I don't think who wins will have any impact on my life," said a woman who gave her name as Huyen in Hanoi.
Among the new parliament's first tasks when it sits next month will be to confirm top leaders already selected by the party at its twice-a-decade congress in January.
Top leader To Lam was reaffirmed as general secretary, but he is widely expected to become president as well, a post that requires approval by lawmakers.
After voting in Hanoi, Lam said on live television that the election aimed "to choose the most prestigious people to continue leading the country to more development."
