Socialist democracy to be promoted

Oct.18 - The Party will further
increase transparency in the selection and promotion of cadres as part of its
efforts to promote socialist democracy, a senior official with the Organization
Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said
Wednesday.

"We will actively explore a mechanism for cadre selection that ensures
people's right to know, participate in, choose and supervise so that the
selection reflects the wishes of common people," Ouyang Song, the department's
deputy head, said at a news conference on the sidelines of the ongoing 17th CPC
National Congress.

His department is mainly in charge of the Party's personnel affairs. The
congress, scheduled to last until Sunday, is set to elect the Party's 17th
Central Committee - that will decide the CPC's new leadership lineup for the
coming five years - and a new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The electoral procedures are still under discussion among about 2,200
delegates to the congress but candidates for the Central Committee membership or
alternate membership would be more than the seats, he said.

Members of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau will be elected by
the new Central Committee.

Ouyang noted the CPC has adopted a series of effective measures in cadre
selections, ranging from democratic recommendation and assessment to opinion
polls, with a view to letting common people decide who should be elected.

CPC Central Committee General Secretary Hu Jintao, in his report to the
congress on Monday, mentioned "democracy" at least 60 times while expounding on
political restructuring.

Hu said that the CPC will "expand intra-Party democracy to develop
people's democracy" by increasing transparency in Party affairs and "opposing
and preventing arbitrary decision-making by an individual or a minority of
people".

Ouyang said the CPC has steadily "advanced the reform of the intra-Party
election system in the election of new leading bodies, improved the nomination
method and expanded the scope and proportion of competitive elections."

The number of candidates was 15 percent more than the delegates to the
17th Party congress. At the national congress five years ago, the margin was 10
percent.

Even bolder steps have been taken in the election of grassroots CPC
organizations with Party secretaries directly elected in more than 200 townships
in Chongqing Municipality, Sichuan and Hubei provinces.

Ouyang said supervision over cadres has been strengthened - 9,378
officials were penalized between 2003 and 2006 for violating rules in
recruitment, promotion and management of personnel.

He did not elaborate on the cases, which often involve corruption or
under-the-table deals to secure promotions or recruit people with connections.