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) 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.
(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2006)