The local committees of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have been downsized in the ongoing elections, respondence to a call by the CPC Central Committee for optimized local Party leadership.

The number of party leader posts, deputy party chiefs in local CPC committees has been reduced, according to the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

The department, together with the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, started in August an inspection on local party committee elections.

The inspection found that the elections being held to select new committees at municipal, county and township levels are going well in pushing the personnel reform, promoting democracy within the CPC, and tightening the organization disciplines.

In Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Liaoning, the numbers of the members of the standing committees of local Party committees have been reduced over 30 on the municipal level, over 200 on the county level and over 5,000 on the township level, the department said.

In Qinghai Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 14 deputy secretaries on municipal level, 50 on county level and 124 on township level were cut down in the new local CPC committees.

Meanwhile, more young, female and ethnic cadres have also been elected during the local Party elections.

The average ages of new local CPC committees are much younger than the previous ones, the department said.

He Guoqiang, head of the Organization Department, said earlier that public opinion would be a major criterion for selecting new CPC cadres while nearly 100,000 officials of the CPC committees at provincial, municipal, county and township levels are running for re-elections in 2006-2007 period.

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2006)