Re-elected Vietnam communist boss says ‘a lot of work ahead’

In this July 3, 2015 file photo, Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong gestures during a meeting with the Western press in Hanoi, Vietnam. Vietnam’s Communist Party on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, re-elected its 71-year-old chief for a second term, officials said, an expected outcome that sees the conservative pro-China ideologue cementing his hold on power. The party’s congress elected Nguyen Phu Trong to a 19-member Politburo, the all-powerful body that handles the day-to-day affairs of the government and the party. In a subsequent vote, he was immediately chosen as the general-secretary, the de facto No. 1 leader of the country. AP FILE PHOTO

HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam’s Communist Party ended its five-yearly congress Thursday after re-electing its 71-year-old chief for a second term, an expected outcome that sees the conservative pro-China ideologue cementing his hold on power.

“Let me be very frank. I didn’t expect to be introduced and elected,” General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (pronounced Noo-yen Foo Chong) told reporters. “I was re-elected as general secretary with almost 100 percent of votes. And I am very surprised by that. Because I am quite old. I am the oldest member in the leadership of Vietnam. I myself asked to be retired but due to responsibility tasked on me by the party I had to accept.”

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Trong said there is “a lot of work ahead of us.”

“The responsibility is enormous. And in the current domestic and international context, there are a lot of opportunities and challenges,” he said.

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