HANOI, March 22 (Reuters) - Communist-ruled Vietnam is

seeking its third president in little more than a year after the

resignation of Vo Van Thuong, who was only elected last year

after the sudden dismissal of his predecessor.

With accumulated foreign direct investment higher than its

gross domestic product, Vietnam's stability is crucial to

multinationals with large operations in the Southeast Asian

manufacturing hub, including Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ),

which ships from Vietnam half of its smartphones, and Apple ( AAPL )

, which has many key suppliers in the country.

That stability, which has been guaranteed for decades by a

state tightly controlled by the Communist Party, now looks less

certain, analysts say, although they agree the current

leadership changes will not impact the country's key policies,

including its "bamboo diplomacy" aimed at keeping good relations

with the United States and China at the same time.

The government statement did not elaborate on Thuong's

shortcomings, but major leadership changes in the one-party

state have recently been linked to the wide-ranging "blazing

furnace" anti-bribery campaign, launched in 2016 by party chief

Nguyen Phu Trong.

It aims to eradicate corruption so widespread that in some

provinces up to 90% of applicants for land certificates paid a

bribe, according to a report published in March 2023 by the U.N.

Development Programme and other organisations.

The campaign intensified over the last two years, with

critics saying it has been increasingly used for political

purposes by party factions competing for power.

Vietnam's foreign ministry on Friday denied that decisions

under the anti-graft drive were politically motivated.

Thuong, 53, stands accused of having violated party rules,

according to a Communist Party statement issued on Wednesday,

which did not clarify what exactly he did wrong.

He quit days after police announced the arrest for alleged

corruption a decade ago of a former head of central Vietnam's

Quang Ngai province, who served while Thuong was party chief

there.

WHO COULD BE VO VAN THUONG'S SUCCESSOR?

Vietnam's parliament accepted Thuong's resignation on

Thursday, confirming a Reuters report from Sunday. It named Vice

President Vo Thi Anh Xuan as acting president until the party

decides the next candidate.

Xuan also stepped in last year to temporarily replace the

suddenly dismissed former president, Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

At that time it took the party a month and a half to pick

Thuong, who at the time of his election had been widely seen as

a close ally to the party chief Trong.

Leading candidates for the permanent position include the

powerful minister of public security, To Lam, and party veteran

Truong Thi Mai, according to multiple analysts.

However, the former may be interested in the far more

powerful position of party chief, a role that is up for grabs in

2026 when Trong's third mandate ends, but that the ageing leader

may make available earlier, officials and analysts say.

Mai's job as permanent member of the secretariat of the

party's central committee had been seen at risk amid the latest

leadership reshuffle, according to analysts, officials and

diplomats, but no decision was announced about her on Wednesday.