President Hu Jintao cast his ballot at a polling booth in Zhongnanhai, central Beijing, on Wednesday, to elect new deputies for the local people's congress in his district.

Former president Jiang Zemin also voted at the same polling station, which is in the compound that houses the headquarters of the central government and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Other leaders casting their votes at other polling stations included Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun, and Luo Gan.

Huang Ju, who was away on business, voted by proxy.

More than eight million voters in Beijing voted at about 12,000 polling booths to elect 4,403 legislators at district level, and 9,983 at the township level.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2006)