Requirements for establishment, merging, splitting or modification of geographical borders of administrative units in Vietnam

Requirements for establishment, merging, splitting or modification of geographical borders of administrative units in Vietnam (Internet image)

Regarding this issue, LawNet responded as follows:

1. Requirements for establishment, merging, splitting or modification of geographical borders of administrative units in Vietnam

According to Clause 2, Article 128 of the Law on Organization of Local Government 2015 (amended in the Law on Planning 2017), establishment, merging, splitting or modification of geographical borders of administrative units is carried out in certain necessary circumstances and must meet the following requirements:

- Conform to the relevant planning decided or approved by the competent authority;

- Ensure the national interests, effectiveness and efficiency in state management of local governments at all levels; make best use of potential and advantages in order to promote the socio-economic development of the whole country and specific local areas;

- Meet requirements for national defence, security and social order and safety;

- Consolidate the people’s solidarity, conform to historical, traditional and cultural elements of specific localities; offer convenience to the people;

- Establishment, merging, splitting and modification of geographical borders of administrative units must be based on standards of these administrative units as stipulated in Clause 1, 2 and 3 Article 2 of the Law on Organization of Local Government 2015 in conformity with features of rural, urban areas and islands.

2. Guidelines for local referendum on the establishment, dissolution, merging, splitting and modification of geographical borders of administrative divisions in Vietnam

Local referendum on the establishment, dissolution, merging, splitting and modification of geographical borders of administrative divisions according to Article 131 of the Law on Organization of Local Government 2015 is as follows:

- The establishment, dissolution, merging, splitting and modification of geographical borders of administrative divisions must be subject to opinions of local people who are the electorate of communal-level administrative units and directly affected by such establishment, dissolution, merging, splitting and modification.

This referendum shall be conducted by collecting opinion ballots from the electorate.

- The Government shall be responsible for conducting this referendum on the establishment, dissolution, merging, splitting and modification of geographical borders of administrative divisions and performing the following tasks:

+ Decide the time when this referendum takes place, opinion ballot templates and supporting materials;

+ Direct, provide guidance on and inspect the People's Committee at all levels in relation to the referendum; direct the task of spreading and dissemination of information about the referendum;

+ Provide adequate budget and necessary conditions to facilitate this referendum;

+ Make the referendum result known to the public through the Government's website.

- The provincial People’s Committee concerned shall be responsible for performing the following tasks:

+ Organize the opinion poll to collect opinions from the electorate within their areas;

+Allocate adequate fund and necessary conditions to facilitate this opinion poll;

+ Instruct and inspect the People's Committee at the inferior level to accomplish the opinion poll;

+ Aggregate and report the results of such poll including local opinions collected from everywhere in their areas.

- The district-level People’s Committee shall be responsible for performing the following tasks:

+ Instruct and inspect the communal-level People's Committee to accomplish the opinion poll;

+ Carry out the spreading and dissemination of information about contents on which opinions should be given within their areas;

+ Aggregate and report the results of such poll including the electorate’s opinions collected from everywhere in their areas.

- The communal-level People’s Committee shall be responsible for performing the following tasks:

+ Compile the list of electors living within their areas at the time of the opinion poll;

+ Decide to hand out opinion ballots to collect the electorate's opinions at communes, wards and commune-level towns in conformity with residential features within their areas;

+ Conduct the opinion poll at each village and residential quarter;

+ Gather meeting minutes and opinion ballots from the electorate; make reports on the opinion poll result.

- Referendum or opinion poll reports must display total number of electors living within their areas, the number of electors participating in the referendum or poll, the number of electors voting in favor, the number of electors voting against and other opinions.

Reports on the result of opinions collected from the electorate living in district-level or communal-level constituencies shall be sent to the People's Council at the same level and the People's Committee at the superior level; reports on the result of opinions collected from the electorate living in provincial-level constituencies shall be sent to the Government and the provincial People’s Council.

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