Parliament considers giving rural population more seats

by Xinhua writer Li Huizi

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature started Monday to discuss granting equal representation in people's congresses to rural and urban people as the country endeavors to shorten a widening gap between cities and the countryside.

A draft amendment to the Electoral Law, tabled at the ongoing annual full session of the National People's Congress (NPC) for third reading, aims to balance elections of lawmakers.

It requires "both rural and urban areas adopt the same ratio of deputies to the represented population in elections of people's congress deputies."

The Electoral Law was enacted in 1953 and completely revised in 1979. It then underwent four minor amendments.

Explaining the draft to lawmakers, Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, said the 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.

After the last amendment in 1995, the law stipulated that each rural deputy represented a population four times that of an urban deputy. Critics said this could be interpreted as "farmers only enjoy a quarter of the suffrage of their urban counterparts."

Before the amendment in 1995, the difference was eight times. "Such stipulations were absolutely necessary and conformed with China's political system and the particular situation at that time," Wang said.

According to the 1953 national census, 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.

With rapid urbanization and rural economic development, the proportion of urban population increased to 46.6 percent last year, he said, adding people's congresses at all levels have gone through many terms of elections, accumulating abundant experience.