Lawmakers alter vote process
9/3/2005 8:29
Lawmakers revamped a decades-old method of writing ballots yesterday to
ensure democracy in voting procedures when electing state leaders.
The new
method requires all lawmakers to write on the ballots - no matter if they vote
pro, con or choose to abstain. The change will apply when the top legislature
votes to elect the chairman of the State Central Military Commission on
Sunday.
"Though the revision only involves a trivial detail, it is of vital
importance to ensure every lawmaker can fully exercise his rights without any
outside influence or interference," commented Wang Quanjie, a deputy to the 10th
National People's Congress that is now in its annual session in Beijing.
At a
full meeting convened in the Great Hall of the People yesterday morning, nearly
3,000 NPC deputies decided to revoke the old balloting method, which provided
that only those who were to abstain or vote against candidates need to write on
the ballot.
"The old method spares the trouble of ballot-writing for those
who vote in favor of the candidate, which helps shorten the voting time," Wang
said. "But at the same time it can also reveal anyone who doesn't support the
candidate, thus putting them under immense pressure."
Some national lawmakers
who also serve in local legislatures said they had encountered several cases in
which some "incompetent and unpopular" candidates were elected due to "loopholes
in voting procedures."
A lawmaker from northeastern Heilongjiang Province
agrees with the change. "Once you pick up the pen and write your ballot,
everyone present knows you are either abstaining or opposing," he said. "This
has virtually turned the 'secret ballot' into an 'open ballot' and has kept
deputies from expressing their will freely and truthfully."
Heilongjiang laid
bare a string of political scandals which led to the downfall of several
provincial-level officials. Some of the ousted officials were elected to posts
despite "bad reputations" among the local deputies "largely owing to the old
ballot-writing method."
In another extreme case, lawmakers in one unnamed
place were given "unsharp pencils" to "make sure no one cast a vote of
opposition or abstention," a different NPC deputy said.
"The new method
adopted by the top national legislature will encourage local legislatures to
follow suit, thus further enhancing democracy nationwide," the deputy
said.
According to the new method, every ballot sheet will have three
oval-shape blanks on it, representing "pro," "con" and "abstention"
respectively. Each lawmaker must fill in one of the corresponding blanks with an
ink pen.
Though the NPC introduced an advanced electronic voting system years
before, lawmakers still need to cast traditional paper ballots on major
issues.
(Xinhua)
Xinhua
|
