China's 19 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have either finished or were just starting their county and township congress elections at the end of September.

County and township congress elections have come to an end in Jilin and Qinghai provinces as well as in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, but some provinces are just beginning the process, according to information released by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) on Tuesday.

China will elect its county and township congresses from July 1, 2006 to December 31, 2007, in accordance with provisions in the Constitution and the Election Law.

More than two million deputies will be elected over the 18-month period.

Around 900 million voters will be involved in the county elections and 600 million in the township elections, according to NPC statistics.

Some provinces have reformed aspects of the elections.

Jilin Province decided that the number of deputies who are government officials should not exceed 25 percent of the total number of deputies elected, to ensure that grassroots congresses have a solid proportion of worker, farmer and intellectual deputies.

The province also decided that at least 25 percent of county and township deputies should be female, so as to protect women's political and democratic rights.

In Beijing, staff working for the election visited every household to register voters so as to avoid oversights, duplications and other voter registration errors.

In Guangdong Province, special venues were prepared for voters who prefer secret ballots.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2006)