Amended electoral law to ensure grassroots representation
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A draft law amendment that says the number of grassroots deputies of farmers, workers and "intellectuals" should be guaranteed, is being discussed at the ongoing session of China's top legislature.
Currently, a large number of legislators in China are government officials and entrepreneurs, leaving less seats for farmers and workers.
The draft amendment under review requires "both rural and urban areas adopt the same ratio of deputies to the represented population in elections of people's congress deputies."
Currently, every 960,000 rural residents and every 240,000 urbanites are represented by one National People's Congress (NPC) deputy respectively, according to the law.
Critics say this could be interpreted as "farmers only enjoying a quarter of the suffrage of their urban counterparts."
Xu Xianming, a member of the NPC Standing Committee and president of Shandong University, said giving rural and urban people equal representation in the legislatures was a "significant improvement" to China's people's congress system and "an expansion of democracy."
It ensures equal representation among people, regions and ethnic groups, Xu said.
Cai Fang, director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said with rapid urbanization and rural economic development, the time was right for equal representation of rural and urban people.
