Meet Vietnam's new President To Lam, who once ate gold leaf-covered steak after paying respect to Karl Marx

Vietnam's rubber stamp parliament voted in public security minister To Lam as the country's new president on Wednesday (May 22), after his predecessor was forced to resign in a major anti-corruption campaign.

Led by Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, a crackdown on corruption has caught up with thousands of Vietnamese people, including several senior government and business leaders.

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Lam is deputy head of the steering committee on anti-corruption. Critics have accused Lam of weaponising the anti-corruption spree to target his political rivals.

In his first remarks as president, Lam said he was "determined to fight corruption and negative phenomena".

Lam takes over from Vo Van Thuong, who resigned in March over "violations and shortcomings", after just a year in the job.

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Vietnam's leadership structure is led by a four-person system: the Communist Party general secretary, the president, prime minister and head of the National Assembly.

The southeast Asian country's National Assembly chairman also resigned in April over "violations and shortcomings", meaning two of the country's top four positions had been vacant for a month.

Lam, 66, has been public security minister since 2016 and has taken a hard line on human rights movements in the communist country.

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The National Assembly elects the president by secret ballot, with deputies then approving the results.

Lam carried 472 of 473 votes.

On Monday, Tran Thanh Man, 61, was nominated as the new head of the National Assembly, and the party has appointed four new politburo members.

Lam has spent his whole career within the secretive MPS, which deals with the monitoring of dissent and surveillance of activists in Vietnam.

In 2021, Lam was at the centre of a scandal that sparked anger in Vietnam when he was filmed eating steak smothered in gold leaf at a London restaurant, shortly after laying a wreath at the grave of Karl Marx.

(With inputs from agencies)