China's county, township congress elections underway
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-24 20:45
China's 19 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have either
finished or were just starting their county and township congress elections at
the end of September.
County and township congress elections have come to an end in Jilin and
Qinghai provinces as well as in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, but some
provinces are just beginning the process, according to information released by
the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) here on Tuesday.
China will elect its county and township congresses from July 1, 2006 to
December 31, 2007, in accordance with provisions in the Constitution and the
Election Law.
More than two million deputies will be elected over the 18-month period.
Around 900 million voters will be involved in the county elections and 600
million in the township elections, according to NPC statistics.
Some provinces have reformed aspects of the elections.
Jilin Province decided that the number of deputies who are government
officials should not exceed 25 percent of the total number of deputies elected,
to ensure that grassroots congresses have a solid proportion of worker, farmer
and intellectual deputies.
The province also decided that at least 25 percent of county and township
deputies should be female, so as to protect women's political and democratic
rights.
In Beijing, staff working for the election visited every household to
register voters so as to avoid oversights, duplications and other voter
registration errors.
In Guangdong Province, special venues were prepared for voters who prefer
secret ballots.
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