Vietnam President resigns after a year in office

HANOI, Vietnam 

Vietnam's president Vo Van Thuong has resigned after only one year in office.

After a meeting of the ruling Communist Party on Wednesday, the government said he had broken party rules and negatively affected its reputation.

In a country known for its political stability, rigidly enforced by the party, a president has just been forced to resign for the second time in just over a year.

Vo Van Thuong, at 53 years old, was the youngest ever to hold the position.

With his resignation, confirmed on Thursday by the National Assembly, he is also the shortest-serving. 

His predecessor Nguyen Xuan Phuc resigned last year, after only two years in the job. Both men were tainted by association with corruption scandals.

The explanation given by the government does not reveal much about the reasons. It states only that President Thuong "violated party rules, and that he had shortcomings which affected public opinion and the reputation of the party, state and himself".

However, he is assumed to have resigned over fraud and bribery allegations being made against officials and a property business in the province of Quang Ngai, where he was once the local party boss. 

The case dates back more than a decade, but is being pursued now by the police, raising suspicions that there may be political motives behind the investigation.

Vietnam has an unusual collective leadership structure, with authority at the top shared between four positions, president, prime minister, communist party secretary-general and chair of the national assembly.