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

The number of party leader posts and deputy party chiefs 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 an inspection in August 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 members of of local Party standing committees have been reduced by 30 on the municipal level, by 200 on the county level and by 5,000 on the township level, the department said.

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

Meanwhile, to ensure parity, more young, female and ethnic cadres were elected during the local Party elections. The average age of new local CPC committees is much lower 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 the 2006-2007 period.

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2006)