BEING, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's migrant workers and rural residents are enjoying greater representation in ongoing county- and township-level legislature elections -- the first such elections to be held since last year's amendment to the Electoral Law.
Elections are currently taking place in over 2,000 counties and townships across the country. More than 900 million county-level electors and about 600 million township-level electors will choose over 2 million deputies in the elections.
These are the first elections of their kind to be held since the adoption of an amendment to the Electoral Law in March last year during the annual plenary session of China's top legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC).
The amendment requires "both rural and urban areas to adopt the same ratio of deputies to the represented population in elections of people's congress deputies."
According to the last amendment made in 1995, each rural deputy represented a population four times that of an urban deputy. Prior to the 1995 amendment, the difference was eight times.
The amendment is part of the country's efforts to empower community-level populations by optimizing the structure of deputies of the people's congress system, or China's basic political system.
Li Xueyang, a migrant worker, was elected as a deputy in Sanjiao township in Zhongshan, a city in south China's Guangdong province with an electorate of 1,335 voters.
"Being elected deputy gave me an obligation. I must try my best for the migrant workers' well-being," Li said after the election, adding that he will provide his email address to the public so that migrant workers can have a channel for voicing their requests.
Li Wenguang, an official from the election committee of the people's congress in Zhongshan, said that Li's election came as the result of the adjustment in the make-up of the deputies, which added four deputies to represent migrant workers for the first time.
In the meantime, the quota of deputies representing urban residents and government officials has decreased, while those for workers, farmers and technicians increased.
The ratio of deputies to the congress from rural areas rose to 72, marking a jump of 8 percent compared to the previous session, Li said.
Gao Guoxi, a professor with Shanghai-based Fudan University, said that an equal ratio of urban and rural deputies will further guarantee people's rights of being masters of their own affairs, as it keeps abreast of China's great urbanization process.
China's urban population made up only about 13 percent of the population according to the national census of 1953. The rural population was much greater 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 that people's congresses at all levels have gone through many election terms, accumulating abundant experience.
The amendment also calls for "organizing more face-to-face contact between candidates and electors to allow candidates to introduce themselves and answer voters' questions."
This stipulation prompted election committees in various regions to make detailed regulations, providing more candidate-elector interaction, as well as expressions of the voters' requests.
"Many old residence buildings in our district did not have a waterproof layer on the rooftop, and dwellers came across a serious problem of water leaking," said Beijing voter Bu Guohua, a 58-year-old teacher from the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.
"I hope the deputies will express our complaints to the government and help settle this problem," said Bu.
"I hope deputies will pay more attention to the small and medium-sized enterprises' difficulties in getting loans," said Chen Fei, an elector in Suzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province, whose enterprise is suffering from ineffective revolving funds.
Prof. Gao said that with a more democratic and open election system, the community-level legislative bodies will definitely find competent government officials.