Congress elections proceeding smoothly

The nomination of candidates who will be considered to stand in the election of delegates to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is proceeding in a "smooth and orderly way", the organization department of the CPC Central Committee announced on Thursday. The 19th CPC National Congress will be held in Beijing in the second half of 2017. A total of 2,300 delegates will be elected by 40 electoral units from across the country.

Candidates must exhibit the beliefs, political integrity and moral qualities expected in upstanding Party members, according to the department.

The election, which will be completed by June, follows five procedures - the nomination of candidates by Party members; nominee review; public notification of the candidates for feedback; candidate short list; and the final vote.

Liang Shaohua, a migrant worker from Xinyi, Guangdong province, returned to his hometown to be involved in the local nomination process.

"As a Party member, I need to be present for important occasions, like this, no matter how far away or busy I am," Liang said. "I came to cast my vote and recommend the most suitable Party members from our organization."

The 2,300 elected delegates will represent more than 88 million CPC members and 4.4 million Party organizations.

This year, more workers, farmers and professionals will be nominated. These "front-line workers" should account for no less than one-third of the delegates representing provincial level regions, the central financial sector and Beijing-based centrally-administered enterprises.

Local election units have rolled out measures to increase the number of front-line delegates, taking into consideration different industries and regions.

Li Jiansong, an official with the CPC Yunnan provincial committee, said: "Half of the province's 54 candidates identify as ethnic minorities, almost one from each of our 25 ethnic minority groups."

Party committees at various levels have held meetings to recommend candidates.

"The election of nominees has been strict and prudent," said Fang Jianhua, a CPC member in a village in Jiangxi province. "The process starts from the lowest level and takes full consideration of the real situation. I believe the elected delegates will be worthy of our trust."

During the recommendation and nomination of delegates, Party organizations in Liaoning province held 44,000 courses on election laws and Party code of conduct, which were available to its nearly 1.2 million CPC members.

Officials in the province had to learn a hard lesson from a huge election fraud case exposed last year, which saw 45 National People's Congress deputies, the country's top legislature, disqualified for bribing voters in 2013. The province elected 40 new national lawmakers early this year.

Xinhua