“Before, the National Assembly wasn’t so much part of the national consciousness,” but this year’s crop of independents draws from a far wider cross-section of society, said Edmund J. Malesky, a Vietnam specialist and a professor of political economy at Duke University.
Professor Malesky said that the independents were younger than ever and that many were discussing their platforms with a degree of openness that is rare in the one-party state. Debates in the National Assembly had become livelier in recent years, he said, and the rise of nontraditional candidates like Ms. Mai Khoi might reflect a growing interest among ordinary Vietnamese in domestic politics.