China's Top Legislature Considers Draft Amendment to Electoral Law

Representation in the NPC is currently determined on a four-to-one rural to urban population ratio, meaning one deputy from a rural area represents four times as many constituents as a deputy from an urban area.

But because China's rural population greatly outnumbers its urban population, the NPC now will switch to a one-to-one ratio in order to allow more rural deputies a seat.

Li Shishi is is director of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee.

"We hope this amendment can reach the goal that the number of NPC deputies in rural and urban areas can be decided by the population ratio. This can be seen as an improvement on the NPC system and the principle of equality of people and region."

China's electoral law was officially enacted in 1953. Since 1979, four amendments have been made to improve the law.

The population ratio for representation in the people's congresses has been changed many times according to changes in the country's demographics.

Now, changes in the distribution of China's rural and urban population again demand an adjusted of the ratio.

"Since China's reform and opening-up, urbanization has been on a fast track. The economic and cultural situation in rural areas also has improved a lot. More than a dozen elections have taken place in the past, which brought enough experience for us to strengthen the electoral system. Now time is ripe for the amendment and it's feasible."

With the development of urbanization, the ratio of urban and rural residents was about 45 to 53 last year.

Li Shishi says making the population ratio the same for rural and urban areas can improve equality by ensuring that each resident enjoys the electoral right, and that each local government, big or small, has the same number of deputies.

He Fei, CRI news.