How are village and neighborhood group meetings organized? Who has the authority to convene and preside over community meetings?
How are village meetings and neighborhood group meetings organized according to Decree 59/2023/ND-CP?
Pursuant to the provisions in Clause 5, Article 3 of Decree 59/2023/ND-CP, the procedure for organizing meetings of villages and neighborhood groups is stipulated as follows:
Step 1: The chairperson of the community meeting declares the reason, introduces the delegates, approves the meeting agenda, and introduces the person to be elected as the meeting secretary.
The meeting secretary is decided when over 50% of the household representatives attending the meeting raise their hands in agreement.
Depending on the specific content of each meeting, the chairperson or the assigned person announces relevant decisions and documents according to the meeting agenda.
Step 2: Participants discuss the content presented by the chairperson or the assigned person.
- For community meetings to elect the Village Head, Neighborhood Group Leader, members of the Community Investment Supervision Board, and the People's Inspection Board at the commune level, the representative of the Village and Neighborhood Group Front Work Committees introduces the list of candidates agreed upon with the village and neighborhood branch committees and requests the household representatives attending the meeting to self-nominate or nominate suitable candidates for the election.
- At the end of the discussion, the chairperson summarizes the discussion opinions, proposes items for voting, and suggests the voting method either by raising hands or secret ballot for the participants to choose.
A proposal is selected when over 50% of the household representatives attending the meeting raise their hands in agreement.
Step 3: Voting on the discussed matters
For hand voting, the results are counted immediately and recorded in the meeting minutes.
For secret ballot voting, the chairperson proposes a vote-counting committee of 03 to 05 members (including the Head and members) for the household representatives to vote on by raising their hands. The vote-counting committee is decided when over 50% of the household representatives attending the meeting agree.
The vote-counting committee guides the rules, how to fill in the ballot, distribute ballots, and start the voting process.
After voting ends, the vote-counting committee counts the votes (during which two household representatives attending the meeting witness the vote counting) and makes a vote counting report.
The Head of the vote-counting committee announces the vote counting results at the meeting. The vote counting report is made in 03 copies and sent with the community's resolution to the commune-level People's Committee, Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee at the commune level, and kept at the village or neighborhood group.
Step 4: The chairperson announces the voting results on each matter and concludes the meeting.
Decisions of the community are documented as resolutions, meeting minutes, memos, or community agreements indicating the community's decisions as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 20 of the Law on Grassroots-level Democracy Implementation 2022.
In the case of electing the Village Head or Neighborhood Group Leader, the elected person is introduced to the meeting. If no one is elected, the reason is stated in the meeting minutes to report to the commune-level People's Committee for decision on re-election organization.
Immediately after the meeting ends, the chairperson is responsible for completing the meeting documents. Within 05 working days from the end of the meeting, the community's decided resolutions must be sent to the commune-level People's Committee and Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee according to Clause 3, Article 20 of the Law on Grassroots-level Democracy Implementation 2022.
How are village and neighborhood group meetings organized? Who has the authority to convene and chair community meetings?
Who has the authority to convene, chair, and what are the contents of community meetings?
Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 3 of Decree 59/2023/ND-CP, the authority to convene, chair, and the contents of community meetings are stipulated as follows:
(1) The Village Head, Neighborhood Group Leader convenes and chairs community meetings for the people to discuss and decide on the following:
+ Policies and contributions for infrastructure construction, public projects within the commune area, village, or neighborhood group funded entirely or partially by the people.
+ Collection, spending, and management of people's contributions within the community other than legally mandated collections; collection, spending, and management of funds and assets managed by the community or received from legitimate revenues, support, and donations.
+ Contents of community conventions and agreements.
+ Elect or relieve members of the People's Inspection Board, Community Investment Supervision Board.
+ Other self-managed tasks within the community, consistent with legal regulations, customs, and social ethics.
(2) The Election Committee (established by the decision of the Chairman of the commune-level People's Committee) convenes and chairs community meetings to elect the Village Head or Neighborhood Group Leader.
(3) The Head of the Front Work Committee in the village or neighborhood convenes and chairs community meetings to relieve the Village Head or Neighborhood Group Leader. If the Village Head or Neighborhood Group Leader is also the Head of the Front Work Committee, the Chairman of the commune-level People's Committee, after agreeing with the Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee at the commune level, convenes and chairs the meeting.
(4) In the absence of the Village Head or Neighborhood Group Leader, the Chairman of the commune-level People's Committee appoints a representative from the village or neighborhood Front Work Committee or a prestigious resident to convene and organize the community meeting to discuss and decide on the contents except for (2) and (3).
(5) The Village Head or Neighborhood Group Leader may delegate a member of the Front Work Committee or a prestigious resident to chair and manage the meeting of the residential cluster and report the results to the Village Head or Neighborhood Group Leader for inclusion in the overall result of the village or neighborhood group.
Who attends community meetings?
Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 3 of Decree 59/2023/ND-CP the regulations are as follows:
Organizing community meetings for the people to discuss and decide
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2. The attendees of community meetings are specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of Article 18 of the Law on Grassroots-level Democracy Implementation. The meeting's time and venue must be convenient and suitable for the community's full participation.
Attendees of community meetings include the Village Head, Neighborhood Group Leader, Front Work Committee members in the village or neighborhood, and representatives of households in the village or neighborhood group.
- A household representative is a person with full civil act capacity, able to represent household members; if no household member has full civil act capacity, the household representative is the person unanimously nominated or authorized by the household members.
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