Vietnam Communists face ban on ‘lavish’ weddings
A bride poses for a wedding photo album in front of a colonial style hotel, rickshaw and old cars in downtown Hanoi.
Vietnam's Communist Party has banned its members from throwing "lavish" weddings, Agence France-Presse reported. The move comes as the authoritarian party is struggling to cool public outrage over a poor economy.
A government directive now limits the number of guests each family can invite to 300, BBC News reported. The ban only applies to Communist Party members and their relatives.
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In a statement signed by Party Secretary Pham Quang Nghi, the government says that "there is still a part of the population, state officials and party members, including key leaders at all levels, who organize ostentatious, extravagant, wasteful weddings," the BBC reported. The statement adds that such extravagant weddings anger the public, the BBC said.
Opulent weddings are common in Vietnam, and it's unclear how the government will enforce the new ban. "Vietnamese authorities are very good at proposing laws but whether the laws are applied and strictly obeyed is a different story," a Communist Party member told the AFP.