The amendment to the Electoral Law can mobilize the enthusiasm of the broad masses of farmers to participate in elections
CRI Online news (frontline reporting team): The much-watched draft amendment to China's Electoral Law was submitted to the National People's Congress for deliberation on the 8th. This revision of the law takes equality of persons, equality of regions and equality of ethnic groups as its principles, and will realize the election of people's congress deputies by urban and rural areas in the same proportion. Chen Sixi, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said in an interview with a reporter of this station that this revision of the Electoral Law can greatly mobilize the enthusiasm of the broad masses of farmers to participate in elections.
Chen Sixi believes that equal suffrage has two layers of meaning, and this revision will realize “equal votes, equal rights” on the basis of one person, one vote, which will have a rather profound impact on Chinese society.
“One layer is one person, one vote. In a selection activity, each person can only have one voting right. It cannot be that because you are a leader, or you are an important figure, while others cast one vote, you can cast two or several votes. Another layer of meaning is that it must also reflect equal votes, equal rights and equal value of votes. Although everyone casts one vote, if the value of this vote is not equal, then it is not equal either. This time we are implementing the same proportion for urban and rural areas —— the rural population and the urban population implement equal votes and equal rights. This can greatly mobilize the enthusiasm of the broad masses of farmers to participate in elections, and it is also an important measure for us to change the urban-rural dual structure. It can help advance the development of our country's democratic political construction.”
Chen Sixi also proposed that the issue of equal suffrage should be analyzed from a broader perspective. On the basis of equality of persons, equality of regions and equality of ethnic groups must also be ensured.
“If we consider suffrage in a larger scope, there is also an issue of equality among regions. Some large countries all have to divide different administrative regions. Different administrative regions have their unique status and role in the entire country's political, economic and cultural life, (but) in the election of representatives, it must be possible to reflect that different regions, as independent administrative units, are equal to one another. Therefore, the principle of equal suffrage must also consider equality of regions, and cannot only be equality of persons. There is also another aspect: equal suffrage must still consider equality of ethnic groups. Our country has 56 ethnic groups, and all ethnic groups are equal. Therefore, in the election of representatives, it must be ensured that every ethnic group has appropriate representatives. So this is also an important connotation of equal suffrage.”
Background information
Among China's 56 ethnic groups, even the smallest ethnic group has its own deputies to the National People's Congress. For example, the Monba ethnic group with only 50,000 people and the Lhoba ethnic group with only a few thousand people both have their own ethnic group's deputies to the National People's Congress.