Beijing: In a bid to bridge the growing rural-urban divide, China has introduced a new law granting equal representation in legislative bodies to rural and urban people within the confines of one-party system.
China's Parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), has adopted an amendment to the Electoral Law granting equal representation during its concluding session on Sunday.
The amendment is regarded as part of China's efforts to narrow the urban-rural gap. It requires "both rural and urban areas to adopt the same ratio of deputies to the represented population in elections of people's congress deputies," official China Daily reported today.
The 3,000 strong NPC, regarded as the ceremonial legislature, consist mostly the members of the ruling Communist Party who contested and won the polls.
The new law was brought in by the Communist Party as a part of political reform to revitalise the system making it more compatible with modern China within the confines of one party system, which the Chinese leadership asserts as democracy with Chinese characteristics.
The electoral law amended in 1995 stipulated that each rural deputy represented a population four times that of an urban deputy.
Critics said it amounted to discrimination as "farmers only enjoy a quarter of the suffrage of their urban counterparts”.
After amending the law, vice-chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Wang Zhaoguo said the new law provides legal guarantees for elections of deputies to people's congresses, the country's fundamental political system, as well as citizens' right to vote and the right to stand for election.
"Such stipulations were absolutely necessary and conformed with China's political system and the particular situation at that time," Wang said.
The old legislation was made in 1953 when the urban population made up only about 13 percent. The rural population was much more than that of cities at that time and an equal ratio of rural and urban representation would have meant an excessive number of rural deputies, officials explained.
With rapid urbanisation and rural economic development, the proportion of urban population increased to 46.6 percent last year, Wang said, adding that people's Congresses at all levels have gone through many terms of elections, accumulating abundant experience.
"The time is right for equal representation" which is conducive to expand democracy, he said, adding that the new law ensures "equal representation among people, regions and ethnic groups”.
The amendment adds stipulations such as "organising more face-to-face contacts between candidates and electors to allow deputy candidates to introduce themselves and answer voters' questions."
PTI
First Published: Monday, March 15, 2010, 14:36