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The democratic rights of China's floating population for voting and
to be voted have still not been brought under the protection of
law, said Doje Cering, minister of Civil Affairs on Wednesday.
According to the Chinese law on organization of villagers'
committee, rural residents should take part in the election in the
places where their permanent residence is registered, said Doje
Cering. The floating laborers, who often moved to other places for
years and even for a dozen years, however, cannot fully exercise
their democratic rights.
At
present, China has a floating population of 120 million, among
which its 35 percent, or some 40 million people, have been moving
between provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, noted a
latest survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
(CASS).
Doje Cering, also a deputy to the First Session of the 10th
National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, called
for enhanced efforts to be done to study and cope with this issue,
saying that grassroots democracy plays a vital role in the
country's political democracy.
At
present, the overall situation of grassroots democracy in China's
rural areas, according to the minister's appraisal, is much better
than in the country's urban areas, since the work for
self-government of farmers began in the countryside over a decade
ago.
The grassroot-level election is relatively good in such major
cities as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Nanjing, but it still
needs to be improved in some other cities, the minister noted.
The law concerning the organization of the villagers' committee
with an aim to protect the right of self-government for China's
farmers, was promulgated by the NPC Standing Committee in 1987, he
said. So far, villagers' committees in most provinces and
autonomous regions have held elections for a couple of times, he
acknowledged. And millions of village leaders have been elected
directly by their fellow villagers.
(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2003)
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