Consultation Procedures Explained

Consultation is the deliberation and discussion between agencies and organizations concerning a specific issue based on the principles of democracy and equality, seeking the majority opinion to reach a unified result.

A consultation conference is a meeting between the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee and member organizations conducted at the central and local levels to agree on the structure, composition, and number of people from agencies, organizations, and units to be elected as National Assembly deputies, as well as the establishment of preliminary and official lists of candidates for the National Assembly deputies.

Through this conference, distinguished individuals who are qualified and eligible to run for the National Assembly deputies are selected and filtered.

- The central consultation conference is convened and chaired by the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front;- The local consultation conference is convened and chaired by the Standing Committee of the Provincial or Municipal Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee under the central government.

The consultation conference will be held three times:

- The first consultation conference: Agreement on the structure, composition, and number of National Assembly deputies elected from political organizations, socio-political organizations, socio-professional organizations, social-professional organizations, social organizations, state agencies, and the people's armed forces;- The second consultation conference: Drafting the preliminary list of candidates for the National Assembly deputies;- The third consultation conference: Drafting the official list of candidates for the National Assembly deputies.

Consultation reflects the democratic essence of a nation. Countries worldwide may not use the term 'consultation' as in Vietnam, but the political systems of each country, when conducting elections, have methods for selecting parliament deputies similar in nature to the consultation process in Vietnam.

For example, in the United States, the House of Representatives is understood as the national legislative body of the country. Each seat in the House represents only one geographically specific constituency. All House representatives are chosen by majority vote as the sole representative of that district. Each of the 50 states in the United States is guaranteed at least one seat in the House, with the number of seats apportioned to the states based on criteria aligned with the state's population.

To be specific: Alaska has a very small population and, thus, has only one seat in the House. California, being one of the most populous states, has 53 seats in the House.

Thus, merely in terms of the number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, it is easy to see the structuring of seat allocation similar to the consultation in Vietnam.

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