Parliament considers giving rural population more seats
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Currently, a large number of legislators in China are government officials and entrepreneurs, leaving few seats for farmers and workers.
However, Vice Chairman Wang said the amendment does not include how rural migrant workers participate in direct elections in their work places as their "hukou", or permanent residence registrations, are in their rural hometown where they are registered as voters.
"The residence registration system reform is proceeding and the conditions are not yet in place to solve this issue," he said.
The draft amendment also adds stipulations such as "organizing more face-to-face contacts between candidates and electors to allow deputy candidates to introduce themselves and answer voters' questions."
It says the setup of polling stations, convening election congress and the management of mobile polling boxes should be further standardized and improved.
It also suggests to set up "confidential polling booths" to root out bribery in elections.
Violence, threats, corruption and other acts that disrupts elections should be investigated and punished, the draft says.
The number of deputies to the NPC is limited within 3,000, and the distribution of the NPC deputies is decided by the NPC Standing Committee, according to the law.
The law says a name list of election candidates to a people's congress must be made public 20 days before the election and officially announced five days before the election.
Electors may vote for or against or abstain from voting, or vote for people other than the candidates. Candidates who stand for election as deputies to a people's congress can be deemed elected "if they receive more than half of the votes," it says.
It would take two or three readings before a law is passed by the top legislature. Lawmakers are expected to vote on the draft amendment at the closing meeting of the session scheduled on Sunday.
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