Hanoi - Vietnam is considering allowing some local heads of People's Committees to be directly elected by citizens, but it is not yet clear how far the reforms might go, Vietnamese political experts said Monday.

Vietnam's National Assembly is debating a pilot project to choose 500 localities, known in Vietnam as communes, where residents will directly elect chairmen of People's Committees, the main governing body.

The Assembly will vote on the proposal on November 15.

"This project is a welcome move, but the question is how it will be applied in reality," said former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Hung Vo.

Vo said that in the countryside, greater democracy might simply lead to contests between the heads of powerful clans for the chairmanship. Smaller or poorer clans might be locked out of power.

"I don't support the concept, because it lacks realistic foundations," said Nguyen Tran Bat, director of InvestConsult, which helps foreign companies do business in Vietnam. "I think the project will fail."

Vo and Bat noted that the proposal did not specify whether the Communist Party would still select all the candidates for the People's Committee chairmanship.

"If the party only uses citizens to vote for candidates introduced by the party, it is just a sham democracy," said Bat.

"If residents can directly vote for the chairperson, it will limit negative influences at the communal level," said Professor Tuong Lai, former director of Vietnam's Institute for Sociology.

However, Lai said the proposal would not lead to a dramatic increase in democracy in Vietnam. He said to do so, one would need to start by increasing democratic pluralism at the top, rather than beginning at the grassroots.

The draft law also proposes eliminating another local government body, known as People's Councils, in four large cities and six provinces.

Under current law, citizens elect members of the People's Councils from candidates approved by a Communist Party-affiliated group called the Fatherland Front. The People's Councils then elect the deputy chairmen and members of the People's Committees.

The appointments must then be approved by higher-level People's Committees. Critics say the People's Councils are largely ineffective, and fail to act as a meaningful check on the People's Committees or to represent their constituencies.

Le Hieu Dang, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Fatherland Front, told local media in June the current electoral system had failed to ensure the full exercise of the people's democratic rights.

"The most important thing is the people will know that their vote counts," Dang said. "Once we can do this, an election won't be a formality and the people will be encouraged to use their vote." (dpa)