The election of more than 2,000 delegates to the 17th National
Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has completed and
the name list of those elected been released in press media in
compliance with the unified arrangements of the CPC Central
Committee. On this event, a leading member of the Organization
Department of the CPC Central Committee has had an exclusive
interview with PD reporters. Its main contents are as follows:
The work of electing delegates to the 17th CPC National Congress
commenced in October 2006 and ended up successfully in June this
year, according to the leading member of the Organization
Department of the CPC Central Committee. A total of 2,217 delegates
have been elected to the upcoming 17th National Congress from 38
electoral units nationwide in a matter of nine months.
The election of all delegates has conformed to the set
procedures and steps about the election of CPC delegates, noted the
leading member of the Organization Department of the CPC Central
Committee. To be specific:
-- They have all been nominated by the grass-root Party
organizations and Party members via recommendations and defined as
delegate candidates with the agreement of most Party organizations
and most CPC members.
-- They have gone through assiduous, conscientious tests by
Party organizations, hearings of opinions about them by Party
organizations and CPC members in the units they belong to, and
hearings of views of Party discipline inspection and supervision
organs to which their units are subjected.
-- They have been elected by Party congresses or CPC
representatives meetings in their electoral units.
Moreover, the elected delegates who have been promulgated have
to be submitted to the 17th Delegate Status Inspection Committee
for examination before they are qualified to attend the 17th
National Congress. And in accordance with conventional practices,
the CPC Central Committee will also define of select some veteran
Party members who have quit their leading posts to attend the
upcoming Party congress as specially-invited delegates.
The work of electing delegates to the upcoming Congress has been
a successful practice of carrying forward the inner-Party democracy
and following the mass line, said the leading member of the
Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.
First, a differentiate rate usually of over 15 percent was
evoked at various electoral units when they call elections at their
Party congresses or Party representative meetings, a?five
percent rise over the differentiate rate at various electroal units
set for the 16th National Party Congress, and thus enlarged the
scope of choice for delegates.
Second, with regard to recommendation of candidates reported by
the county (or city at the county level) and the city (or the
prefecture), the past practice of collective discussions by the
standing committee of the county or city Party committee has been
shifted to nominations by Party standing committees and the
subsequent decisions through the mulling of the full Party standing
committees.
Third, elementary delegate candidates of electoral units will be
notified in an appropriate way within the scope of their electoral
units, so as to draw on opinions of CPC members and people in a
more extensive way and accept their supervision.
Fourth, before the defining of probationary candidates, the
full-member Party committees of provinces, municipalities and
autonomous regions will generally inform personages of various
non-Communist parties, associations of industry and commerce and
personalities without party affiliation at the provincial level on
the choice of candidates and solicit their opinions.
(People's Daily August 7, 2007)