How are 19th CPC National Congress delegates elected?

BEIJING - In about one year, 2,287 delegates have been elected to attend the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), to be held in Beijing from Oct. 18.

The elections started in November 2016 after the CPC Central Committee stated the quota of delegates, their qualifications and the election procedure.

According to requirements, nominees must be highly qualified politically and ideologically, have good work and life styles, be competent in discussing state affairs, and have been successful in their work.

The election was competitive with more than 15 percent of the preliminary nominees eliminated during the process.

Party committees at various levels encouraged wider participation of grassroots-level CPC members in the nomination process.

Besides media coverage, lectures, and leaflets, they also used video connections, text messages, messages on instant messaging service WeChat, and telephone talks to include more Party members into the process.

Those in remote regions such as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region even took mobile ballot boxes to towns and villages for voters.

All grassroots-level Party committees were included, with 99.2 percent of Party members participating, 1.2 percentage points higher than the figure for the 18th CPC National Congress.

The electoral units then conducted thorough investigations of nominees, listening to the opinions of both their supervisors and the public.

After passing the investigations, the delegates, elected from across the country when local Party committees held their congresses this year, will need to pass a further check to get final approval to attend the congress.

Compared with the delegates to previous CPC national congresses, this year's list features more from frontline production and manufacturing, minority ethnic groups, and women.

Among them, 771 delegates are from frontline production and manufacturing, including workers, farmers, and technicians, accounting for 33.7 percent of the total, up by 3.2 percentage points from five years ago.

These delegates not only come from traditional industries like manufacturing, transportation, steel and coal, but also from sectors such as finance, the Internet, and social organizations.

The representation of female CPC members and members from ethnic minority groups is also rising, reaching 24.1 percent and 11.5 percent of the total respectively.

The average age of the delegates is 51.8, about 0.2 year younger compared with the 18th CPC National Congress, and about 70.6 percent of them are under the age of 55.