| Election Name: | 2011 Vietnamese parliamentary election |
| Country: | Vietnam |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2007 Vietnamese legislative election |
| Previous Year: | 2007 |
| Next Election: | 2016 Vietnamese legislative election |
| Next Year: | 2016 |
| Seats For Election: | All 500 seats in the National Assembly |
| Majority Seats: | 251 |
| Election Date: | 22 May 2011 |
| Turnout: | 99.51% |
| Leader1: | Nguyễn Phú Trọng |
| Party1: | Communist Party of Vietnam |
| Leader Since1: | 19 January 2011 |
| Last Election1: | 450 seats |
| Seats1: | 454 |
| Seat Change1: | 4 |
| Leader2: | – |
| Party2: | Non-party & independents |
| Last Election2: | 43 seats |
| Seats2: | 46 |
| Seat Change2: | 3 |
| Prime Minister | |
| Before Election: | Nguyen Tan Dung |
Parliamentary elections were held in Vietnam on 22 May 2011.[1] Since Vietnam is a single-party state, the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam was guaranteed to win a majority.[2]
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, there were 827 candidates. 31.4% were women, 14.3% were not members of the Communist Party, 16.1% were members of ethnic minorities and 22.1% were candidates running for reelection.[3] Regardless of party standing, all candidates are evaluated by the Fatherland Front.[4]
Originally, 82 people were self-nominated, but of those only 15 were approved by party officials in order to run in the election.[5] However, Vietnam saw an increase of self-nominated candidates (82) in 2011 compared to 30 in 2007.[6] Some pro-democracy and human rights activists were a part of the self-nominated group, who did not receive the required approval. These included lawyers Le Quoc Quan, a former fellow for the National Endowment for Democracy and Cu Huy Ha Vu and Le Cong Dinh, both sentenced to jail for security and propaganda risks against the state.[7]
The 14 politburo seats were also up for election, though these elections were held in small electoral districts chosen by the party leaders. Thus, not all Vietnamese voters had a say in the politburo election decision.[8]
During the 2011 election, Vietnam had an estimated 62,200,000 registered voters and of those registered 61,900,000 ballots were reportedly cast.[9] Of the 500 members elected, 333 were first-time members and four were self-nominated. Almost all of them had at least a bachelor's degree; 15.6% were from ethnic minorities, 24.4% were women, and 8.4% were not members of the Communist Party.[10] Non-party members, who managed to gain a seat in the National Assembly, include brother and sister duo Dang Thanh Tam and Dang Thi Hoang Yen from Saigon Investment Group.[11]
Following the elections, on 25 July the new National Assembly elected Trương Tấn Sang as the new president, with 483 of the 496 National Assembly members voting for him.[12]