The 18th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is approaching. To ensure its success, we must resort to democratic centralism in the election of delegates, and fully stress democracy within the Party. All organizers of the election must abide by the requests of the central leaders, and proceed strictly under their principle, so as to promote democracy, says an article in People's Daily. Excerpts:

Democratic centralism is the dominating principle of the CPC. The process of electing delegates is not only a chance for Party members to exercise their rights and participate in politics within the Party, but also an opportunity for Party units to turn their will into reality, which is why it is called democratic centralism.

In the coming election, delegates will be elected through the combined will of the leaders and electors after delicate consideration and arguments. Only in this way can we elect delegates that are widely representative of all within the Party.

So we ought to encourage all basic units and members of the Party to join in recommending delegates.

It needs the enthusiasm of all members to elect the best candidates as representatives.

This requires us to educate and guide the Party members to recognize the importance of the election and understand the requirements of the election, so they can fully participate.

We should also pay more attention to migrant, retired and elderly Party members, so as to ensure the participation rate can be raised compared with last year.

In the process of electing the best members, we need to solicit a wide range of opinions from those involved.

The most basic Party units should be put forward the names of delegates, while all the CPC committees should recommend candidates according to the opinion of the Party and its members.

They should recommend more candidates than needed so as to ensure healthy competition, and they should consider the opinions of all the delegates.

The committee as a collective should examine the quality of the candidates and issue public notices on their backgrounds, which is a necessary step for hearing opinions from Party units, representatives and members.

Of course, they should also hear the opinions of discipline committees, while for the candidates from enterprises they should also hear opinions from the bureaucratic organs.

The organizers must hold meetings within the CPC, and decide the candidate list by votes. At the provincial level, the CPC leaders should also consult influential organizations outside the party for opinions.

The organizers must take the meetings seriously. That is a key step to promoting democracy within the Party.

They should name at least 15 percent more candidates than needed to make the election competitive, so as to let the electors better exercise their democratic rights.

The organizers should endeavour to do their job well, by not only listening to the electors, but also guiding them to elect the right person, so as to ensure the Party organizations' firm and unchallenged leadership over the election, which is a prerequisite of electing delegates according to the Party's requirements.

(China Daily 01/13/2012 page9)