Regulation of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on the Direct Election of Deputies to People’s Congresses at or below the County Level

(Adopted at the 26th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People’s Congress on March 5, 1983)

To facilitate the implementation of the Electoral Law of the National People’s Congress and Local People’s Congresses of the People’s Republic of China, the following provisions are made with respect to certain issues concerning the direct election of deputies to people’s congresses at or below the county level:

1. An election committee shall be established in every county, autonomous county, city not divided into districts, municipal district, township, ethnic township and town. Members of the election committee in a county, an autonomous county, a city not divided into districts or a municipal district shall be appointed by the standing committee of the people’s congress at the corresponding level. Members of the election committee in a township, an ethnic township or a town shall be appointed by the standing committee of the people’s congress of a county, an autonomous county, a city not divided into districts or a municipal district.

The election committee establishes an office to handle specific matters related to the election.

2. The functions and powers of an election committee shall be:

(1) presiding over the election of deputies to the people’s congress at the corresponding level;

(2) registering voters, examining the voters’ qualification and publishing the name list of voters; handling petitions concerning the list of voters and making decisions thereon;

(3) dividing electoral districts for the election of deputies to the people’s congress at the corresponding level and allocating the number of deputies to be elected in each electoral district;

(4) deciding on and publishing the official list of candidates for deputies based on the opinions of the majority of voters;

(5) fixing the date for the election; and

(6) determining the validity or invalidity of the election results and publishing the names of the deputies elected.

The election committee in a county, an autonomous county, a city not divided into districts or a municipal district directs the work of the election committees of the townships, ethnic townships and towns.

3. A mentally ill person unable to exercise his voting rights shall not do so after confirmation of his case by the corresponding election committee.

4. Upon decision by the people’s procuratorate or people’s court, a person who is held in custody for involvement in a counterrevolutionary case or in any other serious criminal case and who is subject to investigation, prosecution or trial shall be suspended from exercising his right to vote as long as he is in custody.

5. The following persons shall be allowed to exercise their right to vote:

(1) those who are sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment, short-term custody or non-custodial correction without the supplementary punishment of deprivation of political rights;

(2) those who are held in custody and are being investigated, prosecuted or tried without having been suspended from exercising their voting rights by decision of the people’s procuratorate or people’s court;

(3) those who are released awaiting trial on bail or a guarantor, or subjected to residential surveillance;

(4) those who are undergoing rehabilitation through labor; and

(5) those who are being punished by detention.

Any of the abovementioned persons may participate in an election by voting at a mobile ballot box or entrusting his relatives who have the right to vote or other voters to vote on his behalf by the joint decision of the election committee and the institution effecting the imprisonment, custody, detention or rehabilitation through labor. Those who are sentenced to short-term custody, who are being punished by detention or who are undergoing rehabilitation through labor may also go back to their original electoral districts to participate in the elections on the election day.

6. If the people’s government of a county or an autonomous county is seated in a city, staff members of its affiliated organs, organizations, enterprises and institutions shall participate in the election of deputies to the people’s congress of the county or autonomous county, and not in the election of deputies to the people’s congress of a city or a municipal district.

7. The staff members of an enterprise or institution located in a township, an ethnic township or a town but not affiliated to a government at or below the county level may participate in the election of deputies to the people’s congress at the county level alone, and do not have to participate in the election of deputies to the people’s congress of the township, the ethnic township or the town.

8. The size of an electoral district shall be determined according to the principle that one to three deputies may be elected from each electoral district.

9. With the permission of the election committees of their residential areas, voters who are temporarily doing labor or other work or are living in other places and cannot go back to their electoral districts to vote may entrust their relatives who have voting rights or other voters in writing to vote on their behalf in their respective electoral districts.

Voters who have actually moved out to live in other places but have not changed their household registration accordingly may take part in the election in the electoral districts of their present places of residence after obtaining a certificate of their qualifications as voters in their original electoral districts.

10. The number of candidates for deputies recommended by any voter (seconded by three or more voters) shall not exceed the number of deputies to be elected from the electoral district.

All candidates for deputies as recommended by voters or political parties or people’s organizations shall be included in the list of candidates for deputies, and the election committees may not replace or delete any of the names or add more names.

Candidates for deputies determined through pre-elections shall be listed officially in order of the number of votes they have received.