By Francesco Guarascio
HANOI, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Delegates at Vietnam’s Communist Party congress that started on Monday were given Samsung tablet computers without an internet connection, had no access to the mobile phone network and will have to stay in designated accommodation, two people briefed on the matter said.
The moves are part of tighter security for the week-long, once in five years event at which the 1,600 delegates will select the country’s top leader for the remainder of the decade, with incumbent party chief To Lam seeking reconfirmation and more powers.
The foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In strict arrangements even by Vietnamese standards, where the one-party state monopolises information, mobile connections were jammed at the Hanoi congress venue and in surrounding areas, according to a Reuters reporter at the conference centre.
Delegates, who will vote on an unspecified day this week to elect the party’s 200-strong central committee and will approve the congress resolution, were given tablets with only intranet functions to work on internal documents during the event, the two people said, declining to be named because information about the congress is deemed sensitive.
The delegates met on Monday for a preparatory session in a red-carpeted conference hall at the congress venue, with leaders on the stage under a towering statue of the party’s founder Ho Chi Minh and the images of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
Delegates will also be prevented from carrying their mobile phones at the congress from Tuesday, a third person said, although the jamming of the mobile network will anyway make them useless for communication.
Representing roughly 5.6 million party members in the country of 100 million, delegates were also told to stay in designated accommodation during the week of the congress, including those from Hanoi, according to two sources.
Guidelines issued to reporters covering the congress prohibit them from carrying mobiles phones. They can use their own computers but can only connect to the event’s network.
Journalists “shall not cause any negative impact on the image or reputation of Viet Nam, its senior leadership, or its delegates in any form,” according to guidelines sent to foreign media by Vietnam’s foreign ministry.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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