Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China on the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses (Amended in 2015)
Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China on the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses (Amended in 2015)
Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China on the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses (Amended in 2015)
Order of the President of the People's Republic of China No.33
August 29, 2015
Adopted at the Second Session of the Fifth National People's Congress on July 1, 1979; amended for the first time in accordance with the Resolution on the Revision of Certain Provisions in the Electoral Law of the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses of the People's Republic of China, adopted at the Fifth Session of the Fifth National People's Congress on December 10, 1982; amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Electoral Law of the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses of the People's Republic of China, adopted at the 18th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Sixth National People's Congress on December 2, 1986; amended for the third time in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Electoral Law of the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses of the People's Republic of China, adopted at the 12th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress on February 28, 1995; amended for the fourth time in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Election Law of the People's Republic of China on the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses, adopted at the 12th Session of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress on October 27, 2004; amended for the fifth time in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China on the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses, adopted at the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress on March 14, 2010; and amended for the sixth time in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Organizations of Local People's Congresses and Local People's Governments, the Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China on the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses and the Law of the People's Republic of China on Deputies to the National People's Congress and to the Local People's Congresses at Various Levels, adopted at the 16th Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress on August 29,2015)
Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Election Institutions
Chapter III Number of Deputies to the Local People's Congresses at Various Levels
Chapter IV Number of Deputies to the National People's Congress
Chapter V Elections among Minority Nationalities
Chapter VI Zoning of Electoral Districts
Chapter VII Registration of Voters
Chapter VIII Nomination of Candidates for Deputies
Chapter IX Election Procedure
Chapter X Supervision, Recall, Resignation, and By-elections of Deputies
Chapter XI Sanctions against Disruption of Elections
Chapter XII Supplementary Provision
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 The Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China on the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses (hereinafter referred to as "this Law") is formulated in accordance with the Constitution of the People's Republic of China.
Article 2 Deputies to the National People's Congress (hereinafter referred to as the "NPC") and to the people's congresses of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities divided into districts and autonomous prefectures shall be elected by the people's congresses at the next lower level.
Deputies to the people's congresses of cities not divided into districts, municipal districts, counties, autonomous counties, townships, ethnic townships, and towns shall be elected directly by their constituencies.
Article 3 All citizens of the People's Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 shall have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of ethnic status, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education, property status or length of residence.
Persons who have been deprived of political rights according to the law shall not have the right to vote and stand for election.
Article 4 Each voter shall have the right to vote only once in an election.
Article 5 Elections shall be conducted separately in the People's Liberation Army, and the procedures for such elections shall be formulated separately.
Article 6 Deputies to the NPC and the local people's congresses shall be broad-based and shall consist of an appropriate number of grass-roots deputies, especially the workers, farmers, and intellectual deputies; the deputies shall comprise an appropriate number of women, who shall account for an increasingly larger percentage.
The NPC and the local people's congresses of the areas with a relatively large number of returned overseas Chinese shall have an appropriate number of deputies who are returned overseas Chinese.
Citizens of the People's Republic of China who reside abroad but who are in China during the election of deputies to people's congresses at or below the county level may take part in such elections conducted in their ancestral hometowns or domiciles before they went abroad.
Article 7 The electoral expense of the NPC and the local people's congresses of all levels shall be included in the fiscal budget and shall be taken by the National Treasury.
Chapter II Election Institutions
Article 8 The Standing Committee of the NPC shall conduct the election of deputies to the NPC. The standing committees of the people's congresses of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities divided into districts, and autonomous prefectures shall conduct the elections of deputies to the people's congresses at the corresponding levels.
In cities not divided into districts, municipal districts, counties, autonomous counties, townships, ethnic townships, and towns, election committees shall be established to conduct the election of deputies to the people's congresses at the corresponding levels. The election committees of cities not divided into districts, municipal districts, counties and autonomous counties shall be under the leadership of the standing committees of the people's congresses at the corresponding levels. The election committees of townships, ethnic townships, and towns shall be under the leadership of the standing committees of the people's congresses of cities not divided into districts, municipal districts, counties and autonomous counties.
The standing committees of the people's congresses of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities divided into districts, and autonomous prefectures shall direct the election of deputies to the people's congresses at or below the county level in their administrative areas.
Article 9 Members of the election committee of the municipalities, municipal jurisdictions, counties, autonomous counties which are not divided into districts shall be appointed by the Standing Committee of the People's Congress at the same level. Members of the election committee of a township, ethnic township, or town shall be appointed by the standing committee of the people's congress of the corresponding city not divided into districts, municipal district, county, or autonomous county.
The members of an election committee who are selected as deputy candidates shall resign from such election committee.
Article 10 The election committee shall perform the responsibilities as follows:
1. divide the electoral districts where the deputies of the people's congress are to be elected, and allocate the number of deputies for each electoral district;
2. conduct the voter registration, examine the voter qualifications and release the voter list; take claims of different opinions on voter list and render decisions;
3. set the election date;
4. seek for and verify information on deputy candidates and organize gatherings for candidates introduction; determine and release the final deputy candidate list based on the opinions of the majority of voters;
5. host the election via voting;
6. determine the validity of the election and release the list of the deputies elected; and
7. other responsibilities as provided by the Law.
The election committee shall release election information in a timely manner.
Chapter III Number of Deputies to the Local People's Congresses at Various Levels
Article 11 The number of deputies to the local people's congresses at various levels shall be determined in accordance with the following provisions:
1. the base number of deputies to the people's congress of a province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government is 350; for a province or an autonomous region, one more deputy may be added for every 150,000 people, and for a municipality directly under the Central Government, one more deputy may be added for every 25,000 people; however, the total number of deputies may not exceed 1,000;
2.
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