The Realisation And Protection Of Equal Suffrage In People's Congress Between City And Rural Areas

Election is the source of democracy. The right to vote, called the "mother right" is the cornerstone of all democratic rights of the civil political rights. Equal suffrage is one of the basic principles of electoral law; however, China's urban and rural areas are in accordance with the election of deputies of different proportion of the population continued the practice of this inequality over half a century because of the specific conditions of China. The proportion of urban and rural differences in the election of deputies from the new China in 1953, the first "election law" had provided for the ratio of 8:1. In 1979 "Election law" declared the proportion of deputies elected county among provincial, urban and rural areas was 4:1,5:1,8:1. In 1995, "Election law" unified the proportion of urban and rural areas of the election of deputies 4:1. In 2010, "electoral law" changed the proportion of election of deputies between urban and rural areas was 1:1. Until now it had experienced nearly sixty years from the initial terms of one-eighth article to the new equal regulation.The same proportion of the population by urban and rural areas in the election of deputies makes the principle of equality in the electoral law more perfect. Meanwhile, "new election law" is meant to achieve the urban and rural areas equality in electoral activities. This equally distributed rights and obligations between urban residents and farmers are in line with the principle of fairness and the interests of the majority requirements. These arrangements also play an important factor in boosting economic development. In addition, with the proportion of urban and rural areas becomes the same, representatives of farmers will be correspondingly increase, which means that the power of farmer representatives in the People's Congress will be also correspondingly increase. It can also be directly in line with the interests of farmers and promote the.production of the policy requirements.2010 "Election" changed the proportion of deputies elected urban and rural areas equal for the first time. But due to lack of experiences we will also need to face many difficulties in the practices of the new regulations, such as the demarcation of constituencies is not reasonable and representatives of the rural areas have no fully capacity to use their rights, the usually illegal election situation and the neglect of the right of migrants. Only these issues are solved, this law will be practice well. We can not over-optimistic about realizing those institutional changes because of the real situations in China. We need to improve a series of supporting systems to ensure true equality, a series of useful measures should be taken to change the existing electoral division method, a more reasonable division of electoral districts; increase the chance to train farmer representatives to improve their capacities in fulfilling their duties; reform the current household registration system, eliminating the obstacles which comes from the situation of urban-rural dual structure of urban and rural areas. We can also establish the specialized legal institutions to protect our rights to vote.Political scientist Robert Dahl has pointed out:"Historically, the development of democracy and respect for rights is always synchronized forward." Given China's political reality, the heart of protecting people's rights of voting lies in creating a fair just and transparent electoral environment. Only citizens freely exercise their electoral rights can we realize the equal electoral rights.