Migrant workers will serve as deputies to county or township people's congresses via direct elections this year, the Standing Committee of the Nanjing Municipal People's Congress in east China's Jiangsu Province announced.

The election will be conducted in areas where the most migrant workers reside, revealed Gu Shanxiang, the spokesman of the Nanjing Municipal People's Congress. He added that the new practice acts in the spirit of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and expands citizens' participation in politics, ensuring people's rights to know, to participate, to express and to supervise.

According to the Standing Committee of the municipal people's congress, the structure of county and township deputies to this year's elections will make corresponding adjustments. The proportion of workers, farmers, intellectuals, women and non-Party members will be raised while that of cadres and members of people's political consultative conferences will be reduced, according to Li Jian, an official from deputy liaison office of the Standing Committee.

Migrant workers will be directly elected as deputies for the first time in the city. This is necessary in order to protect migrant workers' interests since there are more than one million migrant farmers working in the city all year round.

Li also revealed some requirements for migrant worker deputies. They should have a permanent occupation and permanent residence, with permanent signifying more than one year. "To elect deputies from city cleaners is a mature plan using those premises," said Li.

Statistics show that there are some 10,000 city sanitation workers with regular incomes in Nanjing.

(China.org.cn by Huang Shan November 8, 2007)