NA deputy dismissed due to holding Cypriot citizenship

The National Assembly adopts a Resolution on dismissing Pham Phu Quoc from his post as an NA deputy of Ho Chi Minh City for holding Cypriot citizenship.

NA Secretary General and Chairman of the NA Office Nguyen Hanh Phuc delivered a draft Resolution on relieving Pham Phu Quoc from his position as deputy of Ho Chi Minh City’s NA delegation due to his dishonesty in declaring his profile.

429 among 431 participating law-makers gave consent to the Resolution, making up 89%.

Quoc, aged 52, admitted that he had acquired the Cypriot citizenship in mid-2018. Quoc’s dishonesty violates NA deputy standards as regulated at the Article 22 of the Law on Organization of the National Assembly.

Earlier in June this year, the NA passed the amended Law on Organization of the National Assembly, which specifies that a NA deputy can "only have one nationality, which is Vietnamese."

After the case was uncovered, Quoc sent a letter to the Ho Chi Minh City administration, resigning from the position of a National Assembly deputy of the city as well as the General Director of the state-owned Tan Thuan Industrial Promotion Company (IPC).

By Thuy Dung