Vietnam unanimously elected Communist Party General Secretary To Lam as president for a five-year term, consolidating his control over both the party and the state.
The move departs from Vietnam’s tradition of shared leadership, in which the jobs have typically been held by different people, and echoes power structures in China under Xi Jinping and neighboring Laos.
It has been widely expected since Lam’s reelection as Communist Party head in January, when observers noted that his consolidation of party authority positioned him to assume the presidency as well.
One party but different people to elect. Just like primaries.
Hahaha I think you are more right than you intended here. The party puts their favorites forward and never wins their election, they may be technically free but in practice the CCP is an autocratic state. Not really any different from how parties influence the primaries in the US.
Imagine the US did away with political parties and instead created a single party called the Capitalist party. Anyone can reach the presidency by joining this party. It’s simply a war to preserve the system, which would such under capitalism, but not so bad when it prevents it.
Except that’s where it stops (in both Vietnam and China). One-party rule is only slightly more democratic than a dictatorship.
You make it sound like democracy is a linear phenomena. There are likely tradeoffs
In ancient Greece there were no parties and it was the first democracy.