National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam

The Communist Party of Vietnam is organized according to the Leninist principle of Democratic centralism.

The supreme party organ is the National Congress, which has been held every five years since 1976. Due to war footing during the time of wars against France and the United States, the first four congresses were not fixed according to a common time schedule. Since the Foundation Conference, 12 national CPV congresses have been held:

The National Congress elects the Central Committee, consisting of 160 full members and 21 candidates. The Central Committee usually meets twice a year.

Congresses

No.	Began	Ended	Delegates	Location	Party members	General Secretary (tenure)
1st	27 March	30 March 1935	13	Macau, China	600	Lê Hồng Phong (1935–1936)
2nd	11 February	19 February 1951	158 (53 alternates)	Tuyên Quang, Vietnam	766,349	Trường Chinh (1941–1956)
3rd	5 September 1960	12 September 1960	525 (51 alternates)	Hanoi, Vietnam	500,000	Lê Duẩn (1960–1986)
4th	14 December 1976	20 December 1976	1,008	Hanoi, Vietnam	1,550,000	Lê Duẩn (1960–1986)
5th	27 March	31 March 1982	1,033	Hanoi, Vietnam	1,727,000	Lê Duẩn (1960–1986)
6th	15 December	18 December 1986	1,129	Hanoi, Vietnam	~1,900,000	Nguyễn Văn Linh (1986–1991)
7th	24 June	27 June 1991	1,176	Hanoi, Vietnam	2,155,022	Đỗ Mười (1991–1997)
8th	28 June	1 July 1996	1,198	Hanoi, Vietnam	2,130,000	Lê Khả Phiêu (1997–2001)
9th	19 April	22 April 2001	1,168	Hanoi, Vietnam	2,479,719	Nông Đức Mạnh (2001–2011)
10th	18 April	25 April 2006	1,176	Hanoi, Vietnam	~3,100,000	Nông Đức Mạnh (2001–2011)
11th	12 January	19 January 2011	1,377	Hanoi, Vietnam	~3,600,000	Nguyễn Phú Trọng (2011–2016)
12th	20 January	28 January 2016	1,510	Hanoi, Vietnam	more than 4,500,000	Nguyễn Phú Trọng (2016–present)