The election of more than 2,000 delegates to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has completed and the name list of those elected been released in press media in compliance with the unified arrangements of the CPC Central Committee. On this event, a leading member of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee has had an exclusive interview with PD reporters. Its main contents are as follows:

The work of electing delegates to the 17th CPC National Congress commenced in October 2006 and ended up successfully in June this year, according to the leading member of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee. A total of 2,217 delegates have been elected to the upcoming 17th National Congress from 38 electoral units nationwide in a matter of nine months.

The election of all delegates has conformed to the set procedures and steps about the election of CPC delegates, noted the leading member of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee. To be specific:

-- They have all been nominated by the grass-root Party organizations and Party members via recommendations and defined as delegate candidates with the agreement of most Party organizations and most CPC members.

-- They have gone through assiduous, conscientious tests by Party organizations, hearings of opinions about them by Party organizations and CPC members in the units they belong to, and hearings of views of Party discipline inspection and supervision organs to which their units are subjected.

-- They have been elected by Party congresses or CPC representatives meetings in their electoral units.

Moreover, the elected delegates who have been promulgated have to be submitted to the 17th Delegate Status Inspection Committee for examination before they are qualified to attend the 17th National Congress. And in accordance with conventional practices, the CPC Central Committee will also define of select some veteran Party members who have quit their leading posts to attend the upcoming Party congress as specially-invited delegates.

The work of electing delegates to the upcoming Congress has been a successful practice of carrying forward the inner-Party democracy and following the mass line, said the leading member of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

First, a differentiate rate usually of over 15 percent was evoked at various electoral units when they call elections at their Party congresses or Party representative meetings, a five percent rise over the differentiate rate at various electroal units set for the 16th National Party Congress, and thus enlarged the scope of choice for delegates.

Second, with regard to recommendation of candidates reported by the county (or city at the county level) and the city (or the prefecture), the past practice of collective discussions by the standing committee of the county or city Party committee has been shifted to nominations by Party standing committees and the subsequent decisions through the mulling of the full Party standing committees.

Third, elementary delegate candidates of electoral units will be notified in an appropriate way within the scope of their electoral units, so as to draw on opinions of CPC members and people in a more extensive way and accept their supervision.

Fourth, before the defining of probationary candidates, the full-member Party committees of provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions will generally inform personages of various non-Communist parties, associations of industry and commerce and personalities without party affiliation at the provincial level on the choice of candidates and solicit their opinions.

(People's Daily August 7, 2007)