張德江委員長:年9億選民將直接參加縣鄉人大換屆選舉

Over 900 million voters are expected to directly elect more than 2.5 million local legislators in grass-roots elections beginning 2016, said China's top legislator in an annual work report on last Wednesday.

上週三，全國人大常委會委員長在年度工作報告中表示，自2016年開始，中國超9億選民將直接參與選舉250餘名當地基層委員。

"This will be a major political event in China, and an important step in the development of socialist democracy," Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), told the National People's Congress Standing Committee in Beijing, the Xinhua News Agency reported last Wednesday. China's grass-roots elections of local people's congresses at the county and township levels - which are held every five years - will be conducted starting 2016, Zhang said.

根據新華社上週三的報道，全國人民代表大會（全國人大）常務委員會委員長張德江在全國人民代表大會常務委員會上表示：“這將是全國政治生活的一個大事件，同時也是社會主義民主發展的重要一步。”他還表示，從2016年開始，中國縣級和鄉鎮級基層選舉將每五年舉行一次。

"Adhering to the Party's leadership, we will fully promote democracy, follow procedures in strict accordance with the law, and strengthen guidance and monitoring of the election work in order to ensure that elections are held honestly and election results meet public expectations," Zhang said.

張德江委員長說道：“我們將堅持黨的領導，充分發揚民主，嚴格依法辦事，加強對選舉工作的指導和監督，以確保選舉公正、選舉結果符合公衆的期望。”

In China, representatives to local people's congresses at the county and township levels are elected directly and constitute over 90 percent of legislators at all levels nationwide, while representatives to a people's congress above the county level will be elected from the people's congress at a lower level.

在中國，縣級和鄉鎮級全國人民代表大會代表佔據全國各級代表的90%以上，但是縣級以上的全國人大代表是由低層的全國人大選舉出來的。

However, the government faces various challenges when it comes to elections.

然而，中國政府在選舉方面還面臨着各種各樣的挑戰。

In February, the Party's top disciplinary watchdog warned against "non-organizational activities in elections" including bribery in Party, governmental and legislative elections at all levels. Party members that do not follow the rules may be removed from public office or even expelled from the Party, it warned.

二月，黨的最高紀律監督機構發出警告，反對包括所有級別的黨政機關和立法機構選舉中出現的賄賂情況在內的“非組織活動”。不遵守規章制度的黨員，將會被開除公職甚至開除黨籍。

The Party has been making efforts to "ensure the seriousness, justice and fairness of elections and to avoid electoral manipulation," Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity-Building at Peking University told the Global Times on last Wednesday.

北京大學廉政建設研究中心副主任莊德水上週三告訴環球時報，黨一直在努力“確保嚴肅、公正和公平的選舉，以避免操縱選舉情況的發生。”

Election fraud is a major problem the Party is striving to curb as the elections have a direct impact on the outcome of the campaign to enhance discipline, Zhuang said.

此外莊德水還表示，選舉對於加強黨紀黨風建設有直接的影響，所以選舉舞弊一直是黨和政府努力遏制的主要問題。