The local committees of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have
been downsized in the ongoing elections, in response to a call by
the CPC Central Committee for streamlined local Party
leadership.
The number of party leader posts and deputy party chiefs has
been reduced, according to the Organization Department of the CPC
Central Committee.
The department, together with the Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection of the CPC, started an inspection in August
on local party committee elections.
The inspection found that the elections being held to select new
committees at municipal, county and township levels are going well
in pushing the personnel reform, promoting democracy within the
CPC, and tightening the organization disciplines.
In Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Liaoning, the numbers of members of of local
Party standing committees have been reduced by 30 on the municipal
level, by 200 on the county level and by 5,000 on the township
level, the department said.
In Qinghai Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 14 deputy
secretaries on municipal levels, 50 on county levels and 124 on
township levels were removed in the new local CPC committees.
Meanwhile, to ensure parity, more young, female and ethnic
cadres were elected during the local Party elections. The average
age of new local CPC committees is much lower than the previous
ones, the department said.
He Guoqiang, head of the Organization Department, said earlier
that public opinion would be a major criterion for selecting new
CPC cadres while nearly 100,000 officials of the CPC committees at
provincial, municipal, county and township levels are running for
re-elections in the 2006-2007 period.
(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2006)