At 8 am yesterday, a long queue of voters had formed outside a polling booth in the Niujie Street area, a major residential quarters for Muslims in Beijing.

Feng Guanying, a 73-year-old Muslim who was patiently awaiting his turn to cast his ballot, told Xinhua that he came to vote because it was a golden opportunity for him to exert his democratic right. Moreover, of the four final deputy candidates in the electoral ward, three were Muslims.

Xue Tianli, imam of a mosque in the area who is one of the four deputy candidates, came to the polling booth as a common voter.

"I really want to be elected as the deputy to the Xuanwu District People's Congress. I welcome locals who encounter problems to come to me," he said.

An Jiqiang came to vote, together with his four and a half-year-old grandson.

"I want my grandson to witness what democracy and voting is all about," said An, while teaching his grandson how to fill in a ballot.

Wang Yuzhen, 76, expressed her support for the imam's candidature while also backing the other two Muslim candidates. She believed that elections are turning out to be increasingly important for ordinary people, because nowadays, deputies of district people's congresses are more willing to seek the interest of the people under their jurisdiction.

The Niujie Street area booth was just one of the 9,127 booths in Beijing's 15 districts and counties where polling was held yesterday. Nearly 7.2 million Beijingers were expected to vote for deputies of district people's congresses.

Guo Jinzhong, an official with the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, said many new characteristics emerged in this year's election.

He said for the first time migrants were allowed to vote in Beijing, with a certificate of qualified voting issued by their hometown authorities.

In the Hongqiao area of Xuanwu District alone, thousands of Beijing's 2.5 million migrant people registered to vote.

Guo also said this year's local election rules stipulated that the number of candidates nominated by political parties or organizations should not exceed 20 percent of the total number, which means 80 percent of the final deputies will be nominated by groups of 10 or more voters.

Beijing's direct election, due to be completed by the end of this year, will mark an end to the nationwide election of deputies to local district and county people's congress, which started in the latter half of last year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2003)