7 Chinese provinces, regions conclude lawmaker elections
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Xinhua, October 19, 2011
Seven provinces and autonomous regions have mostly completed their elections for lawmakers in county and township legislatures, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.
Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has selected 23,731 deputies for its 109 counties' people's congresses and 75,742 deputies for 1,126 townships' people's congresses, following Shanxi, Jiangxi, Xinjiang and Gansu, said the statement.
Western Qinghai Province has concluded elections in the majority of counties and townships, except for Yushu County, which was hit by a magnitude-7.1 earthquake on April 14, 2010.
Elections in Yushu will be held from late October to next April in line with disaster rehabilitation needs, according to the statement.
Northwest Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region completed elections in its 642 townships but has to wait until next May to begin the county-level legislature elections as current lawmakers are still in their service terms.
The statement said another 13 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, have begun or are set to begin their elections.
Another five provinces and autonomous regions -- Hunan, Liaoning, Ningxia, Tibet and Yunnan -- will hold elections next year.
Under last year's amendment to the Electoral Law, elections for lawmakers at the county and township levels, which started on May 7, granted rural and urban citizens equal representation in legislative bodies for the first time.
The previous electoral law stipulated that each rural deputy represented a population four times that of an urban deputy.
In the seven provinces that have mostly completed their local legislature elections, the Electoral Law had been fully implemented and spurred wide participation, with 90 percent of local populations registering to vote, according to the statement.
It also said the percentage of women, workers and farmers, and technicians elected as deputies has risen in the seven provinces, while the percentage of party cadres has decreased.
The statement said a variety of new channels, including e-mail, online chatting tools like QQ and instant mobile messages, had been used to encourage residents to register to vote for local lawmakers.
The migrant population's right to vote and to be elected has also been ensured by improved service and loosened restrictions regarding registered residence.
Beijing promised to grant voting rights to those able to provide valid documents from the election authorities of their originally registered regions of residence.
An official with the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee said in June a member of the migrant population may win candidacy in the place of current residence despite of his or her registered place of residence.
Elections of lawmakers at county and township legislatures across the country will all be completed before the end of 2012, said the statement.
More than two million lawmakers at the county and township levels will be elected during the quinquennial nationwide elections in more than 2,000 counties and 30,000 townships, according to the NPC.
