Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang passes away at 61

Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang has passed away at the age of 61 on Friday morning.

The state television and radio of Vietnam announced on Friday morning, 21 September 2018 that President Tran Dai Quang, one of the top three leaders of the country has passed away after a bout of serious illness. He was mostly entrusted with ceremonial duties of the country.

Vietnam Television reported, that Quang died in a military hospital in Hanoi, after suffering from a serious illness despite efforts by domestic and international doctors and professors to cure him. The deceased president is survived by his wife and two sons.

Prior to his appointment as the president in 2016, Tran Dai Quang had been minister of public security, heading an organisation with broad powers responsible for intelligence gathering and thwarting domestic and foreign threats to the party.

Tran Dai Quang hailed from a small farming community 115 km south of Hanoi. He made his way through party ranks to become a police general and Politburo member. Bui Duc Phi, council chairman of the village where he was born, said, “We are saddened to hear the news that the president has died.”

Former health minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu, who now oversees health care for high-ranking officials, had said that Quang has been ill for the past two months. Trieu also told Reuters, “He began showing symptoms of illness in June last year and has been treated in Japan six times since.” He further added, “He suffered from a kind of highly virulent virus, for which there has not been any efficient treatment.”

Vietnam’s political structure is such that, it has no paramount ruler. It is officially led by four ‘pillars’: its president, prime minister, the chief of its Communist Party and the national assembly chair. Although the president sits on the powerful decision-making politburo but his role is far more ceremonial.

According to Vietnam’s constitution, there is a provision that provides for the vice president to perform the president’s duties should he be unable to work.

Tran Vu Hai, a prominent lawyer of the country, said, “Vice president Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh will handle his duties until the National Assembly elects a new president.”

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